Tag: MCA Chicago

Holiday gift sources

 

 

Art Institue of Chicago has a great gift shop (J Jacobs photo)
Art Institue of Chicago has a great gift shop (J Jacobs photo)

 

We’re past Black Friday and Cyber Monda but there are still gifts to get so here are some ideas for in person and on line shopping.

In Person

The “One of a Kind Holiday Show is at The Mart this weekend from Thursday through Sunday. The show, which returns in late spring, brings back the fun of shopping without the stress.

There are more than 500 artists (think major art fair plus) that includes clever, hand-crafted, cooking utensils and gorgeous glass items. But it also has food booths of candy, spices and other delectables. Hours: Dec. 7-9, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Dec. 10 – 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

For tickets and more information call 800-677Mart or see Attend | One of a Kind Show (oneofakindshowchicago.com)

The Mart is at the Chicago River between Orleans and Wells Streets. The show is on the 7th Floor.

 

On Line – Museum shops

If downtown Chicago, make the trip a museum destination as a two-for so you enjoy an exhibition and pick up gifts. Many of the Cit y’s top museums have on-line gift stores so you can shop at your best time.

Art Institute of Chicago

Among the best museum stores, at AIC you can find items at many price points from a Pablo Picasso scarf for $190 to cute Georges Seurat “Sunday on La Grand Jatte” socks for $16. For more ideas visit  Museum Shop.

 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago 

Jewlery, puzzles, home décor are at all price points ranging from a Frida Kahlo puzzle for $19.99 to a Midnight Crescent Petite necklace for $180.00. For these items and more ideas visit MCA Shop.

 Happy Shopping

Jodie Jacobs

Comics exhibit pulls viewers into real and alternate worlds

 

 

Ivan Brunetti Spring 2013 . (Courtesy of the artist)'
Ivan Brunetti Spring 2013 . (Courtesy of the artist)’

A fun and startling exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, opened June 2021, is likely to expand your definition of art and important artists.

As with art over the ages and across countries, much of it reflects the times and artists’ views and backgrounds.

But if you hadn’t thought of comics as art, consider the work of Ivan Brunetti in the 1960’s. His piece shown here  was in the New Yorker magazine. It stands on its own as art but really is part of a cartoon.

So, if you read the New Yorker or a newspaper containing comics do you look just at the panels or do you look to see who drew them?

The MCA exhibit, titled “Chicago Comics: 1960’s to Now,”  makes comics more personal by focusing on  artists with ties to Chicago.

 

The works of more than 40 cartoonists from about the 1960’s to the present cover the walls and tables of MCA’s Fourth Level exhibition space including that of  Lynda Barry, Lilli Carré, Daniel Clowes, Nick Drnaso, Edie Fake, Emil Ferris, Nicole Hollander, Charles Johnson, Chris Ware and Kerry James Marshall. Yes, Marshall, a  world-renown Chicago artist.

Kerry James Marshall (photo by Bryan Conley, Image courtesy of the artist)
Kerry James Marshall (photo by Bryan Conley, image courtesy of the artist)

His works are in major museums from the Art Institute of Chicago to the Met and MoMA.

The MCA exhibit includes more than a dozen of his comics from the Rythm Mastr Daily Strips. They were part of a 57th Carnegie International installation  (2018) courtesy to the MCA by the artist.

What fanzine viewers and Marvel comics readers know is that artistic cartoons take many forms. In the MCA exhibit look for more than newspaper-style comics. See works in graphic novels,  drawings, dioramas, zines, commissioned films, books sculptures and installations.

Brunetti, New Yorker, Photo courtesy of the artist)
Brunetti, New Yorker, Photo courtesy of the artist)

 

To see a Marvel exhibit go to the Museum of Science and Industry through Oct. 24, 2021.

For the MCA exhibit information and tickets visit Museum of Contemporary Art  “Comics” continues through Oct. 3, 2021.

As to the Brunetti piece it is a comic  cover for the New Yorker, a magazine famous for its cartoons.

Save time to also visit “Chicago – Where Comics Came to Life: 1880 to 1960” at the Chicago Cultural Center. Held up on the fourth floor in the Sydney Yates Gallery,  the exhibit is the perfect companion piece to that at the MCA.

Jodie Jacobs

 

Two in person and one virtual art now in Chicago

Visit Monet exhibit and maybe one you don't know at the Art Institute of Chicago. (J Jacobs photo)
Visit Monet exhibit and maybe one you don’t know at the Art Institute of Chicago. (J Jacobs photo)

 

Expo Chicago

Normally, and we all are wondering if life will return to the old normal, art collectors would be elbow to elbow down at Navy Pier as they perused choice works shown by upscale galleries at the International exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art.

Known as Expo Chicago, the popular art gathering is now scheduled to return in person April 8-11, 2021. But for 2020, the show and its educational programs are virtual and are called Exhibition Weekend Alternative. Plus ,the event will showcase Chicago.

Set for Sept. 25-27, it will feature Chicago-based exhibits, artist programs and curatorial projects through virtual tours and discussions. There will also be opportunities for custom viewing and sales. The platform is provided by HOOK which connects collectors and galleries.

The platform is provided by HOOK which connects collectors and galleries.

For more information visit ExpoChicago/ExhibitgionWeekend/Alternative.

 

Art Institute of Chicago

After delaying the highly anticipated Monet exhibit until good protocols could be in place, the Art Institute opened “Monet and Chicago” Sept 5. It will be up through Jan. 19, 2021.

Members have access the first hour of any museum day, everyone must wear a mask and social distancing is in place with arrows and the revised spaces set for each picture.

Museum goers know that Art Institute is internationally recognized for its French Impressionist collection. However, they may not know that Claude Monet was well received in Chicago when he first showed outside France and that influential Chicagoans started collecting his works early in the 1890s.Thus the title of the current show.

Among his patrons were Bertha and Potter Palmer (yes, the Palmer House) who amassed 90 of his works including many of the “Stacks of Wheat” paintings by 1901.

The Art Institute which became the first American museum to purchase a Monet (1903) had also been the first US museum to hold the artist’s first solo show in the Us. “20 Works by Claude Monet (March 1895).

The exhibit is by timed ticket. So plan in advance to see it. The Art Institute is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information visit artic.edu.

 

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Several exhibits opened at the MCA in July including the very appropriate “Just Connect” which closes Nov. 8 and “Alien vs. Citizen” which includes a Kerry James Marshall work and closes Feb. 21, 2021..The museum is closed Monday-Thursday. Tickets are timed so plan in advance. For more information visit MCAChicago.