Exhibitions in Chicago
January 2027
January at a glance: 1 exhibition opening, 8 closing, and 14 more on view across the city.
Opening in January
Closing in January
Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism3 JanArt Institute of Chicago
The first Art Institute show devoted to Cassatt in over 25 years brings together 70 paintings and works on paper from the late 1880s to the early 1900s, her most ambitious and experimental period.
Flyway City: Architecture for a Flourishing Ecosystem3 JanChicago Architecture Center
Designed and co-curated by Studio Gang, this show confronts the billion bird collisions with glass each year in the US and presents scalable bird-friendly design for cities.
After the Age of Dinosaurs3 JanField Museum
What happened once the dinosaurs were gone: plants and animals reshaped Earth into a lush tropical world of new giants and tiny survivors, told through fossils, touchable casts and immersive media.
Chicago's Living Habitat15 JanChicago Architecture Center
Co-curated with Openlands in the Usher Lambe Gallery, tracing the regional landscapes that sustain life around Chicago and the decisions that protected, lost or restored them.
Embroidered Traditions from Morocco to Afghanistan25 JanArt Institute of Chicago
The museum's first exhibition devoted to the artistic traditions of the SWANA region, with more than 70 embroidered works from the 18th through the 20th century.
Abigail Lucien: Blood of the Earth25 JanArt Institute of Chicago
An immersive installation of new sculptural objects in which the Haitian American artist explores how iron connects us to histories, the material world, and each other.
Anne Frank The Exhibition31 JanGriffin Museum of Science and Industry
A full-scale, fully furnished recreation of the Amsterdam Annex where Anne Frank hid, with more than 100 original objects lent by the Anne Frank House.
Kenzi Shiokava31 JanMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago
The artist's first solo museum exhibition gathers over 50 sculptures from five decades: abstract totems carved from wood, and box assemblages of toys, dried plants and stones.
Also on through January
Chicago Works | Mike Cloud: Worldless Obstructionto 7 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 Itto 7 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 2010–2026to 7 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 Continuityto 21 FebSmart 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.
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.
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.