The University of Chicago will once again serve as a partner and participant in EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, April 7 to 10th at Navy Pier.

In its eighth edition, EXPO CHICAGO, presents artwork from leading galleries from Chicago and around the world. Through collaborative EXPO ART WEEK, /Dialogues, and Special Exhibition programs, it also reveals how the University of Chicago is shaping Chicago's greater contemporary art landscape.

As in years past, the 2022 EXPO CHICAGO features the work of DoVA alumni and faculty and showcases several University of Chicago arts organizations. 

For information on tickets, hours, and a full list of EXPO CHICAGO programs and participants, visit expochicago.com.

EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS

Exhibition | Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine
Smart Museum of Art
Feb 15–May 15, 2022
This exhibition offers a rich reconsideration of a visionary African American painter. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Bob Thompson (1937–1966) earned critical acclaim in the late 1950s for his paintings of figurative complexity and chromatic intensity. Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine borrows its name from a diminutive but exquisite painting created by the artist in 1960. With this title, Thompson declared his ambition to synthesize a new visual language out of elements of historic European painting.

Exhibition | Meriem Bennani: LIFE ON THE CAPS
The Renaissance Society
Feb 26–Apr 17, 2022
​​New York-based artist Meriem Bennani (b. 1988, Rabat, Morocco) will debut her most ambitious film production to date, Life on the CAPS, a multi-dimensional narrative frame that continues her exploration of themes of displacement, biotechnology, and privacy through world-building and formal experimentation. The project serves as a contextual arch to Bennani’s practice in its entirety, integrating dual-purpose story lines that carry both entertainment and analogy. The exhibition will also be marked by Bennani’s first book, edited by Bidoun. Curated by Myriam Ben Salah.

This new work is a co-commission with Nottingham Contemporary, UK where it will be presented May 7 – Sep 4, 2022.

Exhibition | Arnold J. Kemp: Less Like an Object and More Like the Weather
The Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society Gallery
Feb 17–Apr 10, 2022
Gallery open by appointment via Tock.
Extended hours for EXPO on April 5: 7-9pm
Arnold J. Kemp is a Chicago-based artist who works in a wide range of media. Over the years, Kemp has sought to challenge and interrogate the politics of “othering” through a variety of forms and motifs, among which the mask stands out as a persistent iconographic concern. Masks are doubly present in the project developed for the Neubauer Collegium, the centerpiece of which is an installation consisting of hundreds of hand-sculpted ceramic objects paired with two large-scale photographs of the artist’s hand animating a Fred Flintstone mask: “speech acts” that are exquisitely articulate in their wordlessness. Curated by Dieter Roelstraete.

Exhibition | 2022 BA Thesis Exhibition
Logan Center Exhibitions
Apr 1–Apr 24
Gallery Hours: 9am-9pm (T-Sat), 11-9pm (Sun)
The University of Chicago’s Department of Visual Arts and Logan Center Exhibitions present the 2022 BA Thesis Exhibition featuring works by Reagan Brown, Grace Correa, Livia Miller, Brady Rider, Timnah Rosenshine, Claud Ruder, Uduakobong Wilson, and Margot Young. Presented by DoVA and Logan Center Exhibitions with the support of UChicago Arts.

Exhibition | Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings
Oriental Institute Museum
Museum Hours: 10am–4pm, Tue–Sun
Extended hours on Apr 5, 2022 from 7pm-9pm
Joseph Lindon Smith (American, 1863–1950) was already an accomplished painter, celebrated for his ability to capture archaeological subjects with vivid realism, when he was invited to Persepolis by James Henry Breasted, OI founder and then director, in 1935 to join the OI Iranian (Persian) Expedition (1931–39). Smith's Persepolis paintings—ultimately three portraits and three landscapes—complemented the work of the expedition, whose goal was to rigorously document and preserve the site for perpetuity. The special exhibition, Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings (January 27–August 28, 2022), curated by Kiersten Neumann, exhibits all six large-scale paintings to the public for the first time in over 80 years.

Exhibition | 100 Views of Lake Michigan
UChicago Campus
100 Views of Lake Michigan is a year-long art project supported by UChicago Public Arts and a College Curricular Innovation Grant. Under the direction of Laura Steward, Curator of Public Art at the University of Chicago, and artist and designer Jason Pickleman, students initiated the collection of hundreds of photographs of the Lake Michigan horizon line. Inspired by Hiroshige’s famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Monet’s multiple haystacks, and other iterative artworks, the collected images were then curated into a series of installations throughout the UChicago campus.
Read about the exhibition here.

EXTENDED HOURS

Extended Hours | Arts + Public Life/L1
L1 Retail Store, managed by Arts + Public Life
Normal hours:11am-7pm, Tue-Sat
Extended hours on Tues, Apr 5 unil 9pm
L1 is a new creative business accelerator and retail store located along historic Garfield Boulevard in Washington Park, operated and managed by Arts + Public Life (APL), an initiative of UChicago Arts. Housing three South Side-based, Black-owned businesses on the Arts Block inside of the historic first “L” station built in 1892, the L1 Retail Store opened on October 9, 2021 and exemplifies APL’s mission to spark culturally stimulated growth on the South Side of Chicago and increase opportunities for communities that have been left out of economic development. Learn more about the L1 fellows and their brands at shopl1.org.

EVENTS

Event | Special Art After Dark: Songs of Protest
The Smart Museum
Tues, Apr 5 from 7–9 pm
A night of discussion and concert surrounding the art of Bob Thompson and the artists that inspired his work - art that confronted the artistic tension of expression and protest. Performances by renowned Blues musician Katherine Davis and other special guests as they share their interpretation of selected Nina Simone songs and poetry readings. 

Event | Afterhours Viewing: Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings
Oriental Institute Museum
Apr 5, 7pm–9pm
Join us on Tuesday, April 5th, from 7–9pm for a private after-hours viewing of the OIM special exhibition, Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings as well as installations by internationally acclaimed contemporary artists Michael Rakowitz and Mohamad Hafez, on view in the Museum’s permanent galleries (https://oi100.uchicago.edu/contemporary-art). 

Event | Art at the David Rubenstein Forum
The David Rubenstein Forum
Tues, Apr 5
Guided tours, 5–7pm

Sat, Apr 9
Guided tours, 4–6pm
Registration required
The inaugural Art at the David Rubenstein Forum program showcases loans from the art collection of University of Chicago Trustee Kenneth C. Griffin in tandem with historical documents from the collection of University of Chicago Trustee and Forum namesake David M. Rubenstein. Rather than presenting an exhibition in a designated gallery space, the Art at the David Rubenstein Forum program integrates selections from these two collections into convening spaces throughout the 10-story building, designed by the acclaimed New York architecture firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The selections intersect with the rigorous scholarship and teaching at the University of Chicago and support the Forum’s mission of contributing to the University’s character as an intellectual destination that builds community through the exchange of ideas.

Group tours available upon request: or call 773.702.2110