Chicago gallery shows | Fall Preview 3

Danh Vo's We the People installed at the Oriental Institute Museum

Photo: Courtesy of Anna R Ressman / Oriental Institute Museum

The big news on the Chicago art scene this week is the opening of Expo Chicago, the city’s new international contemporary and modern art fair. More than 100 galleries from the United States and abroad will be represented under the roof of Navy Pier’s Festival Hall. Jeanne Gang designed Expo’s layout and interiors, adding design cache to the event. The fair opens on Wednesday evening, September 19, with Vernissage and runs through Sunday, September 23. 

Gallery Weekend Chicago takes place nearly concurrently with Expo Chicago. Fifteen of Chicago’s contemporary art galleries are offering artist talks, gallery tours and other events that are free and open to the public.

Two of the GWC participating galleries will be hosting opening receptions on Friday, September 21. Andrew Rafacz Gallery will be presenting the work of John Opera while Kavi Gupta Gallery will be showing paintings by Clare Rojas.

Looking for something a little more funky? Head northwest to Wicker Park’s One Strange Bird art center for “Creature Feature,” a group exhibition featuring the work of Hebru Brantley, among others. Opening reception is Saturday, September 22.

For more international fare, head to Gallery Guichard in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood for “Building Bridges: Art of South Africa.” The reception is scheduled for Friday, September 21 and will feature artists Mhonto Mpumezi Gwazela and Banele Njadayi with remarks by South African Consul General Vuyiswa Tulelo.

Also on the city’s South Side, the Zhou Brothers open their new exhibition, “Li, the River of Souls,” at Bridgeport’s Zhou B Arts Center. Their new paintings are inspired by China’s Li River and pay homage to its historical past while revealing a visionary future.

Finally, don’t miss artist Danh Vo’s We The People.  In this conceptual work, Vo reconstructed sections of the Statue of Liberty and distributed them around the world. The Renaissance Society has installed five of the massive copper fragments on the University of Chicago campus, including the Booth School of Management, the Law School and the Oriental Institute museum (pictured above). The Art Institute of Chicago will display five more of Vo’s pieces.