The ‘Light’ shines on for Chicago’s Neo-Futurists and underground theater
By Grant Rindner Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind has been a mainstay of Chicago’s underground theater scene and the most visible performance of the city’s Neo-Futurist movement for 28 years since the play debuted on Dec. 2, 1988. The long-standing show made new headlines this fall as its creator, Greg Allen, abruptly decided […]
Veterans of Chicago’s DIY counterculture see a shifting scene and new paths ahead
By Grant Rindner When Rae Bees came to Chicago from Tallahassee, she already had deep roots in Florida’s DIY culture that went back to her college days. When she arrived in the Windy City, she became involved with Hostel Earphoria, a house and creative space that hosts artists traveling through Chicago and looking for an authentic understanding […]
Moholy-Nagy retrospective highlights his revolutionary vision, impact in Chicago
By Grant Rindner Laszlo Moholy-Nagy brought the Bauhaus movement from to Chicago from Germany in the 1930s, launching a revolution in arts and design as one of Chicago’s most influential and iconic innovators. The Renaissance man comes through is the sprawling new exhibit and even the exhibit title “Moholy-Nagy: Future Present,” on display at the […]
Vulfpeck’s Theo Katzman breezes through Evanston’s SPACE ahead of second album
By Grant Rindner Ahead of the January release of his second album, Heartbreak Hits, singer and funk-rock free spirit Theo Katzman took the stage at Evanston’s SPACE this month. Katzman plays guitar and drums in the successful band Vulfpeck and was joined onstage by bassist Joe Dart of Vulfpeck and independent singer-pianist Joey Dosik and […]
Chicago Humanities Festival brings you literary luminaries and a whole lot more
By Grant Rindner You could be forgiven for thinking that the Chicago Cubs’ World Series cliffhanger and subsequent Game 7 victory marked the city’s signature cultural event of the past few weeks. But in nooks of the city such as Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park or Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium, crowds of local […]
Two new Field Museum exhibitions channel enduring history of Native American art
By Grant Rindner A massive, majestic bison dominates two new exhibits in the Field Museum’s Hall of Native North Americans. The bison, a familiar icon in the hall, is now incorporated as part of the pair of exhibits that glimpse into Native American art today and re-contextualize the past. Detailed illustrations by Chris Pappan, attached […]
Acclaimed artist combats violence with innovative graphic design
By Grant Rindner The air of protest is undeniable in Rick Valicenti’s newly opened (maybe) This Time exhibit at Loyola University’s Ralph Arnold Fine Arts Annex, on view through Nov. 26. But the veteran graphic designer and current Loyola Artist in Residence uses his collection to do much more than revisit the same statistics and […]
Augusta Read Thomas’s Ear Taxi festival delivers a soaring ode to Chicago’s new music culture
By Grant Rindner Chicago is a music festival mecca with everyone covered, from hip-hop heads (AAHH Fest) to jazz aficionados (Hyde Park Jazz Festival) to EDM junkies (Spring Awakening). But vaunted composer Augusta Read Thomas wanted to highlight a vibrant, edgy music community that has yet to receive its due on that same scale – […]
Newly opened Tseng Kwong Chi retrospective highlights the power of the selfie
By Grant Rindner Though the term hovered decades away from its place in the lexicon of pop culture, the first retrospective of New York photographer and performance artist Tseng Kwong Chi elevates the selfie beyond something to kill time or send to friends in self-revealing five-second bursts. Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for the Camera, is […]
