Chicagoans are encouraged to celebrate nature’s beauty and a woman’s aesthetic touch via 2024 exhibitions that display everything from female-made clay works, shadow boxes and papier maché to floral creations and plant installations.
Although women have historically been overlooked for their contributions to the ceramics field, the Art Institute of Chicago’s Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan (through June 3) highlights the innovative works of 36 different female artists from across Japan, including Mishima Kimiyo (b. 1932), Tsuboi Asuka (b. 1932), and Ogawa Machiko (b. 1946).
“There are so many strong contemporary women artists from Japan that are truly pushing the limits in ceramics and clay beyond what we’ve ever seen traditionally,” says Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art, the Art Institute of Chicago. “This show brings together artists on the cutting edge of invention in terms of materials, glaze, and technique, and we are thrilled to recognize their contributions to the global ceramics field.”
This spring, Hyde Park Art Center will house Aimée Beaubien: Through the Hothouse (March 2-June 2) and Alice Shaddle: Fuller Circles (March 23-June 16). Curated by Nicholas Lowe and Lisa Stone, the first exhibition explores the impact of Chicago artist Alice Shaddle (1928-2017) per her wide array of paper-based creations. In the latter exhibit, Aimée Beaubien (b. 1966) transforms a 92-foot-long hall into a green space via a mixed media installation that raises questions about environmental preservation and conservation.
Reality show fans may recognize Elizabeth Cronin from HBO Max’s Full Bloom floral competition, but Chicagoans know her as the founder of Wicker Park/Loop’s popular flower shop Asrai Garden, and of the Black Florist Fund which offers grants and other resources to for-profit Black florists and Black flower farmers across the States. Currently, she’s curated Glass to Garden: Tiffany Inspired Floral Designs (through Jan. 7) at the Driehaus Museum. Angelica Rivera Varela from Semillas Plant Studio and Taylor Amilas Bates from Dusk Lily Floral are among the floral designers whose works will be on display along with eight floral-themed vases and lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios.
“Nature was Tiffany’s muse,” explains Executive Director Lisa M. Key. “And so we’re having a bit of fun with this idea in Glass to Garden. Now contemporary floral artists — who work directly with nature — are letting Tiffany be their muse. We’re particularly excited to partner with Elizabeth on this exhibition, given her own work as a floral designer and her array of experiences both collaborating with and guiding others in the field.”
“The designers will be using preserved floral and plant material, which is a very new approach to floral design, and also helps to keep the museum’s historic interiors critter-free,” adds Cronin. “The juxtaposition of contemporary floral artists using a modern medium in a modern design style, inside a Gilded Age home and in conversation with Tiffany’s work from the same time period, is exciting for us as designers and we hope will be equally engaging for the museum’s audiences.”
Driehaus will also host Sif Itona Westerberg: Twin Flame, Double Ruin (Feb. 16-April 14), the first solo US museum show of Copenhagen-based artist Sif Itona Westerber. Curated by Stephanie Cristello, the exhibition features bronze and concrete sculptures based on Ancient Greek mythology.
“My practice draws a lot of inspiration from archaic mythologies and classical art, so working in a building brimming with history, ornamentation, and craftsmanship is just extraordinary to me as an artist,” says Westerberg. “The fundamentally human experience that art has strived to express throughout the ages—and the craftsmanship, care, and precision that have resulted in works of art and architecture that have survived for centuries—always gives me hope. I am very grateful for this opportunity to work closely with the Driehaus Museum and Stephanie Cristello to bring the contemporary and the historic into dialogue with this show.”
Maria Burundarena, who creates installations with large scale images, light projection and reflective materials, is among the 17 contemporary artists chosen to display work in Cleve Carney Museum of Art’s Once: Emerging Artist Exhibit (through Jan. 7). “This exhibition provides early career artists from the community and beyond the opportunity to exhibit their work in a professional setting and to have it seen by our audience,” says Justin Witte, director and curator of the Glen Ellyn museum.
The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art known as EXPO CHICAGO will return to Navy Pier’s Festival Hall (April 11–14) with works curated by Amara Antilla, Senior Curator at Large at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and Rosario Güiraldes, Curator of Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
“EXPO CHICAGO is an international art fair deeply rooted in the cultural ecosystem of Chicago and the broader Midwest region, and this year we are thrilled to have for the first time two section curators that represent institutions from our region, while also bringing incredible international expertise and perspective to our programs,” explains the expo’s artistic director Kate Sierzputowski. “We are committed to platforming local-global idea exchange throughout the exposition, and the frameworks these two powerhouse curators bring to each program further strengthens this vision.”