And now, the harder discussion unfolds, what I most appreciated and was engaged by this past year, in the galleries and non-profit art spaces that form the nexus of the Chicago arts community.
As always, there was much I took in this past year that engaged me deeply. There were also those shows that left me feeling cold, surprisingly unmoved, and even rather disappointed, with their missed opportunities and down right failures. While I'll elect not to share those, suffice to say, this is to be expected when such diversity of talent and exploration is taking place. And yet the experiment stays riveting as a result. Chicago remains for me a true hothouse of artistic opportunity; to see it emerge, play out, and engage or fail keeps me both on my toes, and truly excited about what is still to take place.
What follows is a list, again in no specific order of preference, of the shows I saw this past year, at galleries and non-profit spaces in Chicago, that most captivated me, and left me thinking (and sometimes even breathing) hard:
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Negative Joy, and Vivian Maier, Vintage Prints, at Corbett vs. Dempsey
Nazafarin Lotfi, Circles, at Tony Wight Gallery
The charm of quasi-parallel lines, a group show, and Mickalene Thomas' group show, tete a tete, at Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Elijah Burgher, Geoffrey Todd Smith, Looker, and Richard Hull at Western Exhibitions
Antonia Gurkovska, Index, at Kavi Gupta Gallery
Christy Matson, The sun doesn't show through the mist until noon, at Alderman Exhibitions
John Opera, People places and things, and the group show, Sea Change, at Andrew Rafacz Gallery
I Surrender, an anniversary retrospective, at Devening Projects and Editions
Karen Reimer's amazing retrospective, Endless Set #1399, and the group exhibition curated by John Neff and Pamela Fraser, Spectral Landscape, at Gallery 400.
There were many honorable mentions as well; shows that I still appreciate greatly. These include the fantastic Chicago biennial curated by Dawoud Bey at Hyde Park Art Center; the wonderful group exhibition curated by Edmund Chia, Did you see heaven: Spectra at Peregrine Program; Jerome Acks' smooth square, soft circle, and Shane Huffman's Sense and Sensibility, both at 65Grand; Aspect Ratio's introduction to Chicago, which included both Gilad Ratman's and Brian Zanisnik's wonderful exhibitions; Kirsten Stoltmann's solo exhibition at New Capital; Karolina Gnatowski's fantastic piece, sounding off against all that testosterone, at Monique Meloche Gallery; Noelle Allen's first solo show in quite some time, at Carrie Secrist Gallery; Zachary Buchner's and Pete Skvara's solo exhibitions at Andrew Rafacz Gallery; Dutes Miller's quite lovely solo show at Western Exhibitions; and just for plain fun, Show Room/Odie Off, at threewalls.
And as always, some need to bid farewell to the passing of important spaces. A very sad goodbye to Golden, which after a series of really wonderful exhibitions, closed down its Chicago space, to focus solely on its Manhattan space. A true loss.
Nevertheless, it was a truly fine year indeed.
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