Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Oct 22, 2025 visibility 22 link 7 artists

obama presidential center new york times interview

Barack Obama discussed the Obama Presidential Center, set to open spring 2025 on Chicago's South Side, in a New York Times interview. The four-building complex will include a museum, library, auditorium, basketball court, gardens, and commissioned works by 25 artists, including Julie Mehretu, Maya Lin, Nick Cave, Jenny Holzer, Kiki Smith, and Richard Hunt. Designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, the centerpiece is an eight-story granite museum nicknamed "the Obamalisk," featuring an 83-foot-tall abstract glass work by Mehretu. Obama emphasized the center's role as a public space to inspire community action, not a presidential mausoleum.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 21, 2025 visibility 15 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

Theaster Gates’ Smart Museum Show Marks a Historic Moment for His Hometown Legacy

Theaster Gates is presenting a major exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago, marking a historic moment for the artist’s legacy in his hometown. The show brings together his multidisciplinary practice spanning sculpture, installation, performance, and urban intervention, reflecting his deep engagement with Chicago’s South Side communities and histories of race, labor, and urban renewal.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 16 link 4 artists

Coming to campus this spring? Check out these exhibitions.

The University of Chicago is hosting a diverse slate of art exhibitions across its campus this spring. Highlights include 'A Bestiary of Ancient Nubia' at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 'Beyond Boundaries: Three Decades of Contemporary Chinese Art' and 'Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas' at the Smart Museum of Art, the photography exhibition 'Black Culture in Chicago' at the Logan Center, and 'History on the Edges: Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Caribbean' at the Regenstein Library.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 15, 2026 visibility 24 link 3 artists

Theaster Gates: Contending with the Past and Present

Theaster Gates has transformed the Smart Museum of Art into a personal sanctuary for his first major solo institutional exhibition in Chicago, titled "Unto Thee." The immersive installation features vast archives from Gates's personal collections, including African artifacts, funerary objects, and a significant vinyl record collection that provides a continuous sonic backdrop to the space. Key works on display include the monumental "Black Still Life #3" and the ongoing series "Walking Prayer," which consists of black books embossed with golden phrases that explore the complexities of Black identity and collective memory.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

Theaster Gates redeems discarded materials in Smart Museum’s ‘Unto Thee’

Theaster Gates's first solo exhibition in his hometown of Chicago, 'Unto Thee,' opens at the Smart Museum of Art, featuring materials collected over his career that are tied to the University of Chicago. The show includes slate from Rockefeller Chapel, glass lantern slides from the art history department, and the 4,500-volume archive of a late colleague, all transformed into sculptural installations that explore the changing meaning of objects.

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