UChicago Arts

What do we know about Theaster Gates? Raised on the West Side of Chicago, he’s an artist known for his innovative blend of materials, civic-minded initiatives and modern spirituality. His work has reached many corners of the human experience, rallying for social justice and encouraging us to consider the world we live in in unique ways. Read more

A striking meditative temple made of painted black wood has been built in London's Hyde Park as part of a prestigious annual architecture commission. Conceived by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates, the "Black Chapel" is the 21st Serpentine Pavilion commission and is meant to provide a space for reflection and healing. It includes a meaningful tribute to the artist's late father, and will also be a site for experimental performances this summer and fall, including a sweeping tribute to the history of sacred music. Read more

The light outside shines into the right-side gallery of the Smart Museum of Art, as exhibit viewers converse about which artwork they like best. As if some force of nature is in conversation with the exhibition, the attic light shines brightly upon all of the artworks in their different mediums (photography, woodcut print, sculpture, weaving), illuminating distinct narratives around environmental determinism: the belief that the environment, especially its physical factors, determine the patterns of human culture and societal development. Read more

For “If Revolution is a Sickness,” Diane Severin Nguyen’s first one-person museum show, on view at The Renaissance Society, the artist has transformed the cavernous space into a curtained theater. Visitors enter through a backstage in which four eerie photographs line the walls. The abstract photographs feature sculptural objects Nguyen creates out of a combination of natural and synthetic material. Pulling aside the backstage curtain, visitors enter the “theater” for the main event, a newly commissioned nineteen-minute video. Read more

In a week where a regional theater just won a Tony Award for decades of excellence, one hopes for serendipity. And that’s precisely what Court Theatre delivers with a blisteringly entertaining new Ron OJ Parson production of August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running” — Wilson’s 1960s play perhaps best known for the defiant, tragicomic line “I want my ham!”

Chicago has some high-profile vacancies for artistic directors. If any of those search committees are looking for a locally committed director who knows how to allow for the full poetic expression of a great American playwright’s ideas while also empowering actors and offering an audience a fast-paced, funny and unstinting night at the theater, Parson is that director. Read more