Hidden in a neighborhood in a building designed by Ando, lots of rotating exhibitions often involving queer art and history, digital art, and bigger art and architecture retrospectives. Prob as close to a secret big art space as you can get in Chicago.
Feb 25, 2025
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Located at the intersection of Western and Cermak in Chicago, the Western Pole is a makeshift rotating exhibition space on a city-owned light pole. Itās run by the artist and curator Jesse Malmed and is one of the single most delightful things in my life. I get to walk by it on my commute to the train and see the exhibitions change at a seemingly random cadence. Theyāre usually poster-based in format but Iāve seen a very cool sculpture of a birdhouse affixed to the pole and sometimes the work is interactive, using phone numbers, QR codes, and even links to artistās Venmoās. Iām aching to know how artists are picked and what the general āinfrastructureā of running the pole is. But also, Iām addicted to the mystery and in love with the reclamation of The Commons.
Chicago has a gorgeous and historied community of alternative art spaces, including an ecosystem of apartment galleries and non-traditional exhibition spaces. We have Barely Fair, a miniature art fair with tiny booths. Thereās a gallery run out of someoneās purse and a now-closed space that existed inside of someoneās medicine cabinet! One curator commissioned artists to make earrings and used her earlobes and neck as an exhibition space. Iām even in on it. My husband and I ran Curb Appeal Gallery out of our living room for a year and a half!
I guess what Iām trying to say is, be scrappy, be nimble, and be creative. You want to do a show, build up your artist CV, get into curatorial work? Make the spaces you want to be within. They can be as simple as a city light pole.
Feb 25, 2025
My recommendation if youāre looking to start going to openings is to sign up for gallery newsletters and plot out who has overlapping art openings (usually on first Fridayās). Organize your gallery-hopping by neighborhood! Grab a friend, plot where youāll get snacks along the way.
West Town / Noble Square:
Western Exhibitions
Patron
Document
Paris London Hong Kong
Volume
ENGAGE projects
Rhona Hoffman
Andrew Rafacz
Monique Meloche
Mickey
West Loop / Fulton Market:
Corbett v Dempsey
Chicago Artists Coalition
Kavi Gupta
Anthony Gallery
Arts of Life
Gray
Humboldt Park / Garfield Park:
Tusk
Patient Info
Goldfinch
Julius Caesar
Pilsen / McKinley Park:
Tiger Strikes Asteroid / MANA
Prairie
Produce Model
University Galleries (go for BFA and MFA shows!):
DPAM
Gallery 400
Logan Center for the Arts
Renaissance Society
Block Museum
SAIC galleries
Feb 15, 2025
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if you are in chicago and like art events, in case you didn't know, you can look online at thevisualist.org and see a great calendar of what's going on.
6d ago
Top Recs from @jrpaperstack
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Even if you end up having to go somewhere else, there still will be culture to get involved in, people to meet, things to learn, realizations to be made. All of that is still right there for you and it will be open in a way you won't even realize until you've done like a year or two. So it's truly still exciting times. As long as you feel generally good about the place you ultimately choose, your time is coming.
Mar 26, 2025
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Currently the new kids been doin it(see also Friko and Lifeguard) Shouts to Kara Jackson, Finom, Dehd, and Chief Keef tho who have been holdin it down.
Aug 26, 2024
Apr 15, 2025