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January Art Picks

A list of exhibitions, talks, screenings, performances, and other art events that will help you start the year off right.

Our Art Picks are created in collaboration with The Visualist, Chicago’s leading visual arts calendar, and cross-promoted through Windy City Times, one of the longest locally-published LGBTQ weeklies with a national reach. This is a growing list, so check back often for new additions.

January Art Picks

Thurs, Jan 3, 9pm-12am
MacKay/Kleijn Duo & Wark/Dawid/Heinemann/Shead
Elastic Arts: 3429 W Diversey #208, Chicago, IL 60647
$10

Fri, Jan 4, 5-8pm
Out of Context
Chicago Artists Coalition: 2130 W Fulton St, Chicago, IL 60612
Free

Fri, Jan 4, 5-8pm
M ㄅ V ㄍ M ㄍ ㄇ ㄒ II : Architecture of Consolation
Chicago Artists Coalition: 2130 W Fulton St, Chicago, IL 60612
Free

Fri, Jan 4, 6-8pm
Yollocalli Wheatpaste World
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago: 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Free

Sat, Jan 5, 9pm
Erwin Helfer, Mama Yancey and Barry Dolins
Hungry Brain: 2319 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60618
$10

Sun, Jan 6, 6-8pm
Tricontinental ’66 and Other Acts of Liberation
Stony Island Arts Bank: 6760 S Stony Island Ave, Chicago, IL 60649
Free

Tue, Jan 8, 6-8pm
A People’s Forum on Public Housing and Housing Insecurity
National Public Housing Museum: 625 N Kingsbury St, Chicago, IL 60603
Free

Tue, Jan 8, 6:30-8pm
Samira Ahmed: Love, Hate & Other Filters
American Writers Museum: 180 N Michigan Ave, Second Floor, Chicago, IL 60601
$6-12

Tue, Jan 8, 9pm-12am
Hideout Residency: Night One
Hideout Inn: 1354 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
$8

Tues, Jan 9, 6-8pm
Sidebar: Faheem Majeed and Aliyah Josiah-Faeduwor
Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry: 929 E 60th St
Free

Wed, Jan 9, 1-4pm
Fay Victor: I SEE You. Do You SEE You?
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts: 4 W Burton Pl, Chicago, IL 60610
Free

Thurs, Jan 10, 6-8pm
Chicago Reader Freelancer Open House
Blanc Gallery: 4445 S King Dr, Chicago, IL 60653
Free

Jan 10 – Feb 22nd
Opening: Thurs, Jan 10, 6-9pm
Gregory Bae: Black Hole of Love / 사랑의 블랙홀
Table Projects: 3240 N Springfield Av
Free

Fri, Jan 11, 5-7pm
WORD: An Art Exhibition Honoring Black History
Noyes Cultural Arts Center: 926 Noyes, Evanston
Free

Fri, Jan 11, 5-7:30pm
Whit Forrester: Domesticating the Numinous
Schneider Gallery: 770 N LaSalle Dr, Suite 401, Chicago, IL 60654
Free

Fri, Jan 11, 6-7pm
Dawoud Bey: Night Coming Tenderly, Black
The Art Institute of Chicago: 111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Free with admission

Fri, Jan 11, 6-9pm
Salome Chasnoff + Meredith Zielke: Present Absence
Uri-Eichen Gallery: 2101 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60608
Free

Sat, Jan 12, 1:30-3:30pm
Live Storytelling: Everyone’s a Designer/Everyone’s Design
Chicago Cultural Center: 78 E Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602
Free

Sat, Jan 12, 6-10pm
David Heo and Yoshien Kuo: Too Good To Be True
LVL3: 1542 N Milwaukee Ave 3rd Fl, Chicago, IL 60622
Free

Sun, Jan 13, 1-2pm
Oh, Maker: Artist Talk
Heaven Gallery: 1550 N Milwaukee Ave, Floor 2 Chicago, IL 60622
Free

Mon, Jan 14, 6-8:30pm
Financial Strategies for Creative Careers
Chicago Artists Coalition: 2130 W Fulton St, Chicago, IL 60612
$0-20

Tues, Jan 15, 6-8pm
In Progress: Brendan Fernandes
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago: 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Free

Tue, Jan 15, 9pm-12am
Hideout Residency: Night Two
Hideout Inn: 1354 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
$8

Wed, Jan 16, 6-8pm
Reimagine Chicago Mayoral Forum
New Mount Pilgrim Church-Chicago: 4301 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60624
Free

Thurs, Jan 17, 5-6pm
Mike Cloud
Art Theory and Practice: 1880 Campus Dr, Kresge Hall 1515, Evanston, IL 60208
Free

Thurs, Jan 17, 7-11pm
Mezcla’s New Year Jam
Isa Studios: 1750 S Union Ave Chicago, IL 60616
$12

Fri, Jan 18, 7-9:30pm
Artist Talk – My Womb es mi Altar: Afro-Latinadades
Rootwork Gallery: 645 W 18th St
Free

Fri, Jan 18, 5-8pm
Opening Reception: All have the same breath
Gallery 400: 400 S Peoria St
Free

Fri, Jan 18, 5-8pm
Sly Neighbors
Circle Contemporary: 2010 W Carroll Ave, Chicago, IL 60612
Free

Fri, Jan 18, 5-8pm
All things share the same breath
Gallery 400: 400 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607
Free

Fri, Jan 18, 5-8pm
Rebuilding the Present
Weinberg/Newton Gallery: 300 W Superior St, Suite 203, Chicago, IL 60654
Free

Sat, Jan 19, 1-3pm
The Evolution of the Chicago Machine and Black Politics
Woodson Regional Library: 9525 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60628
Free

Sat, Jan 19, 2-4pm
LGBTQ Forum with the Chicago Mayoral Candidates
Second Presbyterian Church: 1936 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60616
Free

Sat, Jan 19, 8pm
AJ McClenon: Black Water – Polarity, Sharks, Adolescence and Being the Darkest Girl In the Pool
Roman Susan: 1131 W Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60660
Free

Sun, Jan 20, 4pm
CRECIE: A Slave Story: Reading Oscar Brown Jr.
Logan Center for the Arts: 915 E 60th St
Free

Tue, Jan 22, 4-6pm
Adam Goodman: The Deportation Machine
Institute for the Humanities, UIC: 701 S Morgan St, MC 206, Chicago, IL 60607
$8

Tue, Jan 22, 9pm-12am
Hideout Residency: Night Three
Hideout Inn: 1354 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
$8

Thurs, Jan 24, 5pm
Stateless: Views of Global Migration
Museum of Contemporary Photography: 600 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605
Free

Fri, Jan 25, 1-4:30pm
Stateless: Views of Global Migration: Symposium
Columbia College Chicago, Stage Two: 618 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605
Free

Sat, Jan 26, 11am-5pm
Dia De La Concha 2019
Zhou B Art Center: 1029 W 35th St, Chicago, IL 60609
$1-10

Sat, Jan 26, 2-3:30pm
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time
The Block Museum: 40 Arts Circle Dr, Evanston, IL 60208
Free

Tue, Jan 29, 9pm-12am
Hideout Residency: Night Four
Hideout Inn: 1354 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
$8

Thurs, Jan 31, 7-8:30pm
E. Patrick Johnson & Jennifer Nash
5233 N Clark St
Free

Thurs, Jan 31, 5:30-7pm
Feminism in Your Face: Public Art Resistance
Glass Curtain Gallery: 1104 S Wabash Ave, 1st Floor, Chicago, IL 60605
Free

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Featured Image: Still from Gregory Bae’s Black Hole of Love / 사랑의 블랙홀, which opens at table projects on January 10th. 

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