There’s so much incredible art and culture taking place in Chicago this month. From the Fine Arts Building, here are some of our favorites. You’ll find a mix of events taking place here within the building, the work of Fine Arts Building tenants across the city, and more!
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1.
Semilla: Cecilia Beaven Solo Exhibition
National Museum of Mexican Art
Cecilia Beaven – who holds a studio in the Fine Arts Building – is a visual artist who, from her roots in Mexico City, has brought her fantastical imagery to Chicago. Beaven explores a variety of media, weaving her pieces together with elements of Aztec mythology and Mexican folk art.
On view at the National Museum of Mexican Art through March 29, Beaven’s exhibition Semilla (Seed) is a journey through her imagination. Through layers of vibrant colors and textures, each piece reflects growth and transformation, both in her artistic evolution and in the eternal cycles of nature.
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2.
Potential Energy: Chicago Puppets Up Close
Chicago Cultural Center, Co-Presented by Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
Chicago is home to a rich and growing ecology of puppetry, bridging mediums and communities of makers. This sampling of puppets by local artists challenges expectations about puppetry, asking how artists invent new ways to build materials in motion, create cohesive worlds, and conjure characters that expand our ability to understand and empathize with ourselves and others?
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3.
Panafrica Across Chicago
Across four days in March, Chicago cultural institutions are teaming up for “Panafrica Across Chicago,” a citywide project that will explore Pan-Africanism as a political movement through art, discussions, film screenings and more.
A few highlights include L.A. designer Betye Saar’s art exhibition at the Neubauer Collegium, 5701 S. Woodlawn Ave., and Jamaican artist Cosmo Whyte’s first solo exhibit in Chicago at the Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario St. There’s also a discussion about the legacies of the Black Panther Party, voguing with Yná Kabe Rodriguez, experimental jazz with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a Kufic calligraphy installation and more.
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4.
The Cave
A Red Orchid Theatre
A Red Orchid Theatre presents this world premiere production by Sadieh Rifai through March 23. Amidst breaking news of the first Gulf War, tragedy forces a Palestinian-American family to move from Las Vegas to Columbus, Ohio, upending their lives. Jamil struggles to hold himself and his family together as the world becomes unbalanced and terror can no longer be buried behind closed doors. Sadieh Rifai’s thriller of a new play examines how a family across cultures and generations leans into love and humor in the face of global turmoil and a fracturing American dream.
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5.
WORTHY: Melissa Kreider Photography Exhibition
Center for Mad Culture
On view in the Center for Mad Culture at the Fine Arts Building through March 29, Worthy is a photographic investigation exploring the realities that criminalized survivors of intimate partner violence face in the U.S. carceral system after acting in self-defense.
At the heart of the narrative of Worthy is a clear and direct questioning of why the power structures in place that are allegedly intended to help victims of abuse ultimately fail. For the majority of individuals who find themselves in these situations, they are punished for defending themselves or they die at the hands of their abusers when they don’t: kill or be killed.
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6.
Making an Impression: Immigrant Printing in Chicago
Newberry Library
Now at the Newberry Library through March 29, catch this free exhibition exploring multicultural printing in Chicago.
From the 15th century, the print trade in Europe and eventually the United States has been powered by immigrants seeking new opportunities and new lives. Some of these immigrants are well-known and celebrated as innovators who shaped the print industry and the burgeoning marketplace. But there were thousands of other workers who toiled in anonymity but were no less important in producing and selling books and other printed materials that shaped every aspect of our culture – people who literally made impressions. Who were – and are – “immigrant printers”? What kinds of things do they print? How have they changed industry and culture? This exhibition establishes Chicago as a vital center of multicultural printing and celebrates what makes Chicago’s immigrant printers, their work, and their communities unique.
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Bob James and Dave Koz, “Just Us”
Studebaker Theater
On March 22 at the Studebaker Theater, join acclaimed musicians Bob James and Dave Koz for an intimate evening of songs and stories. These two living legends of instrumental music will perform a stripped-down concert in support of their brand new unprecedented duet album, “Just Us”.
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8.
Cygnus
The Gift Theatre
In this world premiere by Susan Soon He Stanton (a writer and producer of HBO’s Succession), running through March 16 at The Gift Theatre, Cydney believes an angel rescued her from an ineffable trauma, and the truth may prove stranger than she imagines. In this mythic, hilarious, and poetic new play, a burnt feather may illuminate the possibility of a divine intervention.
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9.
Krissy Bergmark Live in Studio
Midnight Tea Performance Series
Krissy Bergmark is a tabla player, percussionist, improviser, and educator who centers her creative work on bringing tabla to new genres. She will perform a solo set live in Midnight Tea’s Fine Arts Building Studio on March 14 at 7:00pm.
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10.
Troy Lee: We From the Heavens
Vertical Gallery
From March 7 – 29, Vertical Gallery presents a solo showcase for Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based painter and illustrator Troy Lee. The exhibit’s soul-baring paintings and sketches aggressively interrogate the perceptions and realities confronting Black men in contemporary America — how they’re seen in the media, and how they see themselves in the mirror.
Join the gallery on March 7 for a special opening reception from 5:00 to 8:00pm.
Alexander Attea
Alexander Attea is the Creative Director of the Fine Arts Building. He is also a playwright, actor, musician, and the Artistic Director of Avalanche Theatre.