Art Museo
InterContinental Chicago O’Hare, 5300 N. River Road, Rosemont; 847-544-5300,
icohare.com
The InterContinental Chicago O’Hare hotel may not be the first place you would think to go for fine art, but you can now. This gallery space at the hotel is a showcase for the work by recent graduates of Chicago-area fine art schools, and also a platform to display work from the gallery’s permanent collection that includes art by Wesley Kimler and Ronald Clayton. Gallery tours are also offered.
Ongoing: “Elevate”: Artists turn simple everyday things that can be overlooked into art that invite viewers to “stop, look, listen, enjoy.” Artwork on display includes Robert Rauschenberg’s screen prints of news clippings, landscapes by Kevin Malella and paintings with objects of nature embedded in them by Constance Pohlman.
Institute of Puerto Rican Arts
and Culture
3015 W. Division St.; 773-486-8345, iprac.org
A member of Museums in the Park, the institute celebrates Puerto Rico’s identity and heritage, offering community arts and cultural programming, including visual art exhibitions, hands-on community arts workshops, films in the park and an annual outdoor fine arts and crafts festival.
Through Dec. 31: “Fotos de Ramon Frade (Frade’s Photos)”: The exhibit is a collaboration between IPRAC and the Dr. Pio Lopez Martinez Museum of Art at the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey and includes photographs by the early-20th-century Puerto Rican artist Ramon Frade Leon. The exhibit is also a study of Frade’s creative process as a painter before photography became his go-to medium.
Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art
220 Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst; 630-833-1616, lizzadromuseum.org
Named for lapidary collector Joseph Lizzadro, whose hobby turned into the massive Lizzadro Collection, the museum displays more than 200 pieces of jade and other hard stone carvings. They include a nephrite jade imperial altar set completed during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
Ongoing: “The Rock & Mineral Experience”: A hands-on exhibit where visitors can learn more about earth science, lapidary materials, mineral specimens and fossils.
Loyola University Museum of Art
820 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-915-7600, luc.edu/luma
Loyola’s art museum is dedicated to exhibits that focus on spirituality in art.
Ongoing: “Gilded Glory: European Treasures From the Martin D’Arcy Collection”: The collection of more than 500 works from the 12th through 19th centuries is considered one of the finest of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art in the Midwest.
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
Northwestern University, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; 847-491-4000, blockmuseum.northwestern.edu
The North Shore fine-arts museum focuses on visual arts programming, from exhibitions and lectures to symposiums and workshops with artists and scholars, and also through screenings of classic and contemporary films at Block Cinema. An expanding permanent collection consists primarily of works on paper.
Through Dec. 9: “Shimon Attie — The Neighbor Next Door”: The multimedia artist known for his two decades of site-specific work that reflects on the relationship between place, memory and identity, has re-envisioned his 1995 project that features archival film footage taken secretly by people forced into seclusion by the Nazis. The original installation was projected onto the sidewalks of Amsterdam from apartments where many groups hid during World War II.
National Museum of Mexican Art
1852 W. 19th St.; 312-738-1503, nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org
Located in Chicago’s Pilsen/Little Village communities, the museum exhibits traditional and contemporary Mexican art prints and drawings, papier-mache, ceramics, photographs and avant-garde installations from local and international artists. NMMA also brings children in by the busload to see art demonstrations and hear storytellers. Each year around Halloween, it hosts the city’s most-visited Day of the Dead exhibit.
Through Oct. 21: “Keepers”: The concept of being a “keeper” is explored with objects from the museum’s permanent collection. Works from artists of Chicago, the West Coast and Mexico are included in the show.
National Veterans Art Museum
1801 S. Indiana Ave., third floor; 312-320-9767, nvam.org
Formerly the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, this is the world’s only museum with a permanent collection focusing on the subject of war from an artistic perspective. With a mission of inspiring greater understanding of the real impact of war, the museum collects, preserves and exhibits art inspired by combat and created by veterans of all U.S. military conflicts. The museum houses more than 1,400 works of art by 255 artists, including paintings, photography, sculpture, poetry and music.
Ongoing: “The Things They Carried”: This collection of pieces from the permanent collection serves as a visual companion to Tim O’Brien’s novel of the same name, using fine art and photography by combat veterans to illustrate the narrative.
Smart Museum of Art,
University of Chicago
5550 S. Greenwood Ave.; 773-702-0200, smartmuseum.uchicago.edu
The museum is home to special exhibitions and a collection that spans 5,000 years of artistic creation. Working in close collaboration with scholars from the University of Chicago, the museum has established itself as a leading academic art museum and an engine of adventurous thinking about visual arts and their place in society.
Through Dec. 16: “Chris Vorhees and SIMPARCH: Uppers and Downers”: The next installation of the Threshold series is an abstract landscape that fills the reception hall of the museum. A kitchen cabinetry, countertop and sink formation is reworked into a large-scale rainbow arching over a waterfall, playing on the utopian promise that restraint yields bliss.
Submit information to ctc-ent-events@tribune.com.
