For some working artists, summer in Chicago is a time to hit the (suffocatingly hot) studio; Others may prefer to join an idyllic residence in a charming lake town in Wisconsin or Michigan. Fortunately, despite the corn sweat, Chicago’s gallery and museum scene is eager to provide new work for the spirit of the Midwest.
The city’s summer pride certainly comes with enthusiasm for the work of local emerging artists, seen in spaces like Prairie and Hans Goodrich. The sweltering heat also creates a dormant interest in local history and political positioning, as is the case at the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Logan Center Exhibitions. And on the South Side, the long-awaited Obama Presidential Center has finally been unveiled, making more than 28 newly commissioned works available to the public. Maybe Chicago summers are the season of attention after all; a time to notice the city as it notices itself.
Joe Feddersen: Urban drama
Volume Gallery, 1700 W Hubbard St, Chicago
June 13 – July 25
Colville artist Joe Feddersen’s solo exhibition combines indigenous iconography and basketry traditions with contemporary landscapes, bringing reverence to form within the larger social commentary. Pert linen sally bags – a centuries-old Plateau basket design for gathering roots – form the backbone of the show, adorned with woven linework subjects that reappear in an adjacent wall installation and framed prints. The images move between decidedly modern and timeless, from box trucks to buffalos, and coalesce into a keen observation of the fixtures that make up our urban environment. Feddersen also offers a vision of change, as in ‘Protest Basket No. 2’ (2025), which depicts a buzzing crowd of human-animal protesters holding empty signs, allowing the viewer to fill in the blank space.
Richard Hull: finally paintings and prints
Western Exhibitions, 1709 W Chicago Ave, Chicago
June 12 – August 15
After a lively exhibition of 100 ink drawings of cats at local watering hole Rainbo Club, Richard Hull’s Finally paintings and prints is a reminder of the longevity and significance of the local Chicago artist. Featuring older prints and more recent paintings in a retrospective-adjacent style that some might fear is a career tombstone, the show is actually a celebration of vision. Hull’s ever-evolving ability to see layers, fractures and movement in seemingly simple subjects results in a cartoonish expressionism that complicates the way of seeing and opens paths to pure feeling. ‘Duet’ (2023) shows two figures with bulging limbs and fleshy parts sitting in quiet company – a wonderfully uncomfortable and honest way to show a deeply human experience.
Nick D’Alessandro: Universal September
Prairie, 2055 W Cermak Ave, Chicago
June 20 – August 2
Nick D’Alessandro’s sleek, loosely woven textiles flutter gently along Prairie’s walls, surprisingly delicate despite their somewhat grotesque surface treatments. The works, sculptural in their verticality, are fairly consistent in each iteration, thanks in part to the table loom D’Alessandro uses, which dictates the width of each strip and gestures toward industrial textile production. Each strip of fabric has undergone a process that has changed its appearance, from being dyed with cyanotype to being buried outside for months. The contrast between commercial production and contamination is stark, turning the commodity produced by labor upside down through destructive aftercare.
Alice Ding: Basel Social Club
Hans Goodrich, 1747 S Halsted Street and 1843 S Halsted Street, Chicago
July 18 – August 31
Prints and Polaroids by Chicago-based artist Alice Ding appear childish at first glance due to their self-evident construction and freehand gestural figuration. Perhaps the works, like the opinions of children, are completely serious and disarmingly serious. Many struggle with the truths of Ding’s experience in the art world and the Global North, as in her self-titled print series with pages from her sketchbook on a flatbed scanner. Collaged and hand-annotated texts, which read like fables, express some of these truths; for example, that some artists will create better work than the rest with the same materials and the same time.
Beyond the black rainbow
Twelve Ten Gallery, 1104 W Thorndale Ave, Chicago
June 6 – July 25
The sleek group show of the upcoming Twelve Ten Gallery is a sacrifice on the altar of lifemaxxing. It takes its name from the 2010 film Beyond the black rainbow by Panos Cosmatos, about a research center that wants to create eternal happiness through technological development. The works question all obsessive interests that consume us on our endless path to self-optimization. As much becomes clear from the double-edged message of ‘immaterial girl’ (2026), a beautiful triptych by Nico Ramirez Rosas with the lyrics ‘I will exhaust myself / I could kill with the power in my mind / every day is a blessing.’ In the reflective, iridescent finish of an untitled ceramic ET, installed by Laveen Gammie in the gallery’s bathroom, visitors can contemplate voyeurism, entertainment and respect as they preen.
Danny Bredar: Supply and demand
Met him pike snakes, 1500 S Western Ave, Chicago
August 1 – September 26
Given the nebulous nature of Chicago meta-artist Danny Bredar’s practice, Supply and demand is sure to provoke endless interpretations and personal experiences. Much of the work is textual, building on a literary series that the artist began over a decade ago, presented as an archive that invites intimate interaction with visitors who can browse through texts and linger in a red Djinn chair, a design that film fans may recognize from 2001: A space odyssey.
Peixuan Ouyang: the yī tiān situation
SHANGHAI SEMINARY, 3262 S Morgan Street, Chicago
June 12 – August 1
Peixuan Ouyang’s solo exhibition offers a quiet moment to reflect on how historical narratives are constructed and reconstructed over time. “The Other Half of the Quilt” (2025–26), a large two-channel video installation, lulls viewers into silent contemplation, combining artist-led interviews with Shazhou residents and contextualizing images of their surroundings with unusual choreographies that freeze the same interview subjects in the city. The installation is based on the popular “Half a Quilt” story, in which Red Army soldiers shared their only quilt with a poor Shazhou villager during the Long March – a story later elevated to symbolize the bond between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people.
Xochicago: Floating Gardens of the Chicago River and Mexico
National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W 19th St, Chicago
May 9 – October 4
As demonstrated in this exhibit, the waterway systems of Chicago and Mexico City share more than meets the eye. Divided into halves by location and arranged chronologically, the show is more didactic than typical, depicting the historical and environmental changes that have shaped the Chicago River and Xochimilco. Historical photographs and illustrations, such as an undated Mariano Miguel print depicting a “niña de las flores” (Xochimilco means “place of flower fields” in Nahuatl), are interwoven with contemporary works, such as “Xochimilco Special Project” (2025), a vibrant audio piece from local youth arts powerhouse Yollocalli Arts Reach.
Longer than the Sky: Art of the Obama Years
Logan Center Exhibitions, 915 E 60th Street, Chicago
July 10 – October 11
Longer than the sky places artists who worked during Barack Obama’s presidency within a new art historical canon that is particularly adept at observing their own social circumstances. Its positioning in the University of Chicago gallery, a space used primarily by students, is also important; many artists with works in important collections (such as the recently opened Obama Center) are or were teachers themselves. And just like the connection between professor and student or institution and community, the relationship between art and cultural context is complex. Big names like Kevin Beasley, Pope.L and Danh Vo will populate the show, positioning their work as both an object and a product of study, looking both inward and outward at their historical moment.
Kenzi Shiokava
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago
June 27 – January 31
The MCA Chicago will be the first to host a solo museum exhibition by the late Los Angeles sculptor Kenzi Shiokava. In addition to the artist’s well-known columnar wooden figures (many of which are on display), Shiokava’s standalone diorama works offer a glimpse into an opposite side of his practice. Where the free-standing totems are constructive, forming new identities from their constituent parts, the box sculptures compartmentalize their found objects, prescribing order and distance to their arrangement. Together with the archival context of Shiokava’s life and work, the exhibition is an important step toward consolidating the artist’s legacy among important California assemblage artists.
