Events Sunday, March 3
The Circus Collages of C.T. McClusky
Through 5/25:Galleries
The complete collection of McClusky's collages, which he made from household objects and that depict his life as a traveling circus clown. Reception Fri 1/11, 5-8 PM.
756 N. Milwaukee Ave.
River West
312-243-9088Pictures at an Exhibition
Through 5/25:Galleries
Group show featuring "a diverse collection of selected fine art." Reception Thu 2/21, 6-9 PM.
Flesh: Photographs by Justice Howard
Through May 31Galleries
Photographic prints that celebrate alternative sexuality. Reception Fri 2/1, 7 PM.
Joan Mitchell: At Home in Poetry
Through 5/1:Galleries
A retrospective of work Mitchell made in collaboration with noted poets, including Frank O’Hara, Bill Berkson, and Charles Hine.
Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962
Through 6/2:Galleries
Multidisciplinary group show that explores how postwar devastation influenced contemporary artistic practices. See long review.
The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989
Through 6/9:Museums
This collection of historical work "uniquely situates two decades of contemporary Indian art within a political sphere while meditating on art's capacity as a force for change." Reception Wed 2/13, 7-8:30 PM.
Fashion and the Field Museum Collection
Through 6/16/13:Museums
Clothes from around the world, as curated by Maria Pinto. Opens Fri 9/14.
James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph
Loop
312-814-5322From the Streets to the Cloud
Through 6/30:Galleries
A retrospective of the work of street artist Chaz Bojorquez, dating back to his earliest works from the late 60s. Reception Fri 11/9 6/9 PM.
Kara Walker: Rise Up Ye Mighty Race!
Through Aug. 11Galleries
Kara Walker is known for her room-sized panoramas depicting scenes of racism, violence, and gender and power struggles. The panoramas are populated by life-size silhouettes, drawn by hand and cut out of black paper, that often portray stereotypical characters of the antebellum south. "The silhouette says a lot with very little information," Walker has written, "but that's also what the stereotype does." By simultaneously flattening and exaggerating her characters, she highlights the reductive ways they've been perceived throughout history. Walker, who has exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and MOMA, became at 27 the youngest-ever recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, a controversial decision that, in 1997, brought her to the forefront of the modern art world. The title of this show comes from the black nationalist Marcus Garvey—by way of Barack Obama, who quoted Garvey in a passage on community organizing in his memoir Dreams From My Father. In its content, "Rise Up Ye Mighty Race!" is a response to the infamous 1978 novel The Turner Diaries, which the FBI called "the bible of the racist right." The book imagines a race war that ends with the extermination of all nonwhite populations. In the new installation, specifically designed for the Art Institute, Walker's signature silhouettes are interspersed with drawings and handwritten text that address the book and what she calls "my ever-present, never-ending war with race." —Janet Potter
Design 1810-1995
1/11-8/24Galleries
Early examples of design are presented, including architectural sketches by Frank Lloyd Wright and George Fred Keck.
New Treasures of our Collection
Through 9/8:Museums
Over 40 new acquisitions, featuring work by notable contemporary Native American artists, including Kevin Red Star and Barbara Gonzales.
The Book of Mormon
Through 10/6: Tue-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
I know it'll seem incomprehensible to you fans of talking turds, but I've never paid Comedy Central's South Park much mind one way or another. And when New York fell all over itself last year appreciating The Book of Mormon, I wondered if there wasn't just a smidge of hyperbole in calling the musical by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (along with Robert Lopez) the best of the "century." Now that I've seen the Chicago production, however, I've been—well—converted. A wise mix of nasty satire and compassionate truth telling, Parker, Stone, and Lopez's tale of Mormon missionaries in Uganda is as entertaining—and, strangely, uplifting—a piece of work as anything in recent American theater. Although the book draws whole quivers full of big red arrows to everything that's ludicrous about the Mormon way, it also ends up making a case for the hope we all derive from silly myths. Meanwhile, playful as it is, it ranks up there with Lynn Nottage's Ruined in exposing the danger, dignity, and distortions of African life. The cast is uniformly and perfectly seductive. And is that Steppenwolf's famously earnest James Vincent Meredith, showing a new side of himself as the Ugandan village chief? Incredible. —Tony Adler
$65-$125
