Exhibitions in Chicago
February 2027
February at a glance: 0 exhibitions opening, 4 closing, and 11 more on view across the city.
Closing in February
Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstruction7 FebMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago
A new series by the Chicago-based painter, juxtaposing emotions and introducing a flexible structure to his foldable paintings.
Tony Lewis: The Long and Short of It7 FebThe Renaissance Society · Free
Chicago artist Tony Lewis builds large graphite-and-paper drawings out of stenographic shorthand, turning the marks of written language into abstraction and a comment on social power.
Vivir la Tierra: Acquisitions from the Permanent Collection 2010–20267 FebNational Museum of Mexican Art · Free
More than forty works acquired over sixteen years — photography, painting, sculpture and video — exploring land as a site of belonging, labour and memory, from 19th-century landscapes to contemporary Pilsen.
- teamLab: Everything Exists in Infinite Continuity21 Feb
Smart Museum of Art · Free
Midwest debut of the Tokyo collective teamLab, tracing 25 years of immersive digital work plus a new commission that dissolves the boundary between viewer and artwork.
Also on through February
Currents: 60 Years of the Chicago Architecture Centerto 1 MarChicago Architecture Center
Six decades of the CAC, from fighting to save historic buildings during urban renewal to shaping design education and advocacy across Chicago. In the Orientation Space.
Tony Cokes: On Boredomto 14 MarArt Institute of Chicago
Cokes's first outdoor presentation in Chicago fills the Bluhm Family Terrace with a two-part installation: a billboard viewable from Millennium Park and a freestanding sign, both set to music.
Slow Danceto 14 MarMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Six artists reclaim forms of slowness that resist the contemporary demand to constantly perform, across painting, sculpture, video and live performance.
Celebrating Chicago Artists: Selections from the M. Christine Schwartz Giftto 21 MarRichard H. Driehaus Museum
Paintings from collector M. Christine Schwartz's gift trace Chicago's fine arts from academic naturalism to impressionism across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Pokémon Fossil Museumto 11 AprField Museum
Fossil Pokémon such as Tyrantrum and Archeops are set side by side with the real fossils that inspired them, including SUE the T. rex. North American debut of the touring Japanese exhibition.
Emma Stebbins: Carving Out Historyto 18 AprRichard H. Driehaus Museum
Thirteen marbles, paintings and archives chart the career of Emma Stebbins, the first woman awarded a public sculpture commission by New York City for Central Park's Bethesda Fountain.
- Testaments to the Beautyful Onesto 16 May
Museum of Contemporary Photography · Free
Eight photographers and six writers document resilient communities across Africa, bridging postcolonial critique with contemporary hope through gender, spirituality, displacement and self-representation.
From the Center: Looking at Lucy Lippardto 11 JulMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Spanning three floors, this exhibition explores the far-reaching impact of art historian, critic and curator Lucy Lippard through themes found in her work.
How Do We Heal?to 11 JulSmart Museum of Art · Free
A thematic draw from the Smart's permanent collection exploring art and healing across six strands: health, grief, displacement, trauma, mindfulness and protection.
Nina Chanel Abney: Between Usto 11 JulSmart Museum of Art · Free
A large-scale site-specific mural for the Smart's Threshold series, using the flat visual language of diagrams and educational charts to map power, labour, housing and inequality as one system.
Body and Being in African Artto 1 MarArt Institute of Chicago
More than 50 objects from the Arts of Africa collection show beliefs and values surrounding the body shared across the continent, and the distinct cultural forms those ideas take.
Stay in the loop on Chicago
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.