Exhibitions in Chicago
October 2026
October at a glance: 3 exhibitions opening, 4 closing, and 25 more on view across the city.
Opening in October
Tony Cokes: On Boredom3 OctArt 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.
Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History9 OctRichard 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.
Haunted House Party31 OctShedd Aquarium
Halloween-night 21+ party where house music meets costumes, with sets by DJ Gent Hunt and DJ Heather among the aquarium's habitats. Saturday 31 October 2026, 7-11pm.
Closing in October
Diane Dammeyer Fellowship Exhibition: Lali Khalid3 OctMuseum of Contemporary Photography · Free
Video, audio and photography by Dammeyer Fellow Lali Khalid, made with CAIR Chicago, exploring belonging and resilience in Muslim life. Shown at Columbia College's Glass Curtain Gallery.
Xochicago: Floating Gardens of the Chicago River and México4 OctNational Museum of Mexican Art · Free
Draws a line between the Mexica chinampas of Xochimilco and the floating gardens now installed in the Chicago River, weighing ecological restoration against pollution and commercialisation.
The Changing Face of Science18 OctField Museum
A rotating Comer Gallery series profiling Field Museum scientists — currently Lesley de Souza and Sara Ruane — following their research journeys, passions and personalities.
Beyond Form: Abstraction at Midcentury19 OctArt Institute of Chicago
Sixty-five artists from more than 23 countries trace how abstraction emerged as a powerful visual language between 1940 and 1970, a period of global upheaval and transformation.
Also on through October
Karimah Ashadu: Tenderedto 1 NovThe Renaissance Society · Free
Moving-image works and sculpture by British-Nigerian artist Karimah Ashadu, centred on the new film MUSCLE, which follows bodybuilders training in Lagos and the labour that shapes them.
A Tale of Today Presents Brendan Fernandes: In the Roundto 14 NovRichard H. Driehaus Museum
The museum's first artist-in-residence turns the 1926 Murphy Auditorium into a site for sculptural installation, sound and dance, unfolding as episodic performances through 2026.
Raqib Shaw: Paradise Lostto 15 NovArt Institute of Chicago
A 21-panel painting over 100 feet wide carries viewers from the nocturnal solitude of the artist's Kashmiri childhood through the frenzy of the Western art world to a fragile, renewed dawn.
Where Memory Lives: 40 Years of Día de Muertosto 29 NovNational Museum of Mexican Art · Free
The museum's 40th annual Día de Muertos exhibition looks back through the permanent collection at how the holiday and the museum itself have evolved, with ofrendas, installations and a community memory space.
Lee Miller: Fearlessto 7 DecArt Institute of Chicago
The first comprehensive survey of Lee Miller's photographs in more than 25 years, gathering the major episodes of her singular career from Surrealist portraiture to wartime reportage.
If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Groundto 19 DecMuseum of Contemporary Photography · Free
Over 110 artists from the MoCP collection imagine the years Emmett Till never had, developed with his cousin Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. — a creative monument to an unlived life.
Utamaro: Elements of Beautyto 21 DecArt Institute of Chicago
More than 40 of the ukiyo-e master Kitagawa Utamaro's most celebrated woodblock designs, all drawn from the Art Institute's own Japanese print collection.
Mary Cassatt: After Impressionismto 3 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 Ecosystemto 3 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 Dinosaursto 3 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 Habitatto 15 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 Afghanistanto 25 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 Earthto 25 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 Exhibitionto 31 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 Shiokavato 31 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stay in the loop on Chicago
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.