We are thrilled to announce a series of four conversations with prominent architects about the state of design of cultural spaces, moderated by New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson. In honor of and thanks to the bequest of Don Powell, notable architect and dear member of The Arts Club, this series delves into knotty questions about the opportunities and challenges created by a post-pandemic, climate-challenged, and socially-conscious environment. The inaugural discussion welcomes Elizabeth Diller, Princeton University professor and a founding partner of Diller Scofodio + Renfro, who designed New York’s High Line, The Shed, the renovation and expansion of MoMA, and the award-winning Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago.
Thursday February 16
Exhibition Opening & Public Lecture
Jessi Reaves: all possessive lusts dispelled
In-person opening & lecture
Lecture may also be viewed remotely
Lecture 6:00 – 7:15 pm
Public Opening 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Jessi Reaves: all possessive lusts dispelled combines iconic modernist design with an irreverent aesthetic in sculpture that toys with functionality. Reaves often begins with found furniture, which she dismantles, converts, remakes, enhances, pads, and embellishes in ways that still allow the suggestion of physical contact or use. By breaking things open, she proposes that they be examined visually and in terms of their purpose in life.
The Club will host an opening reception and a public On the Exhibition conversation between Executive Director Janine Mileaf and Reaves in the salon.
Lecture and Opening gallery reception are free and open to all.
Register here to attend the lecture in-person: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
Register here for virtual viewing:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
Thursday, February 9
Evening Public Program: Garden Projects
Andrea Carlson in Conversation with Clarence Morgan
In-Person Program with option to view remotely
Program 6:00 pm
Andrea Carlson’s The Waves May Break Here Still, a printed mural on the side of the building, celebrates the potential impermanence of the human built environment, alluding to the indigenous history of The Arts Club’s site, when the Magnificent Mile was under water. To commemorate her work in the garden, Carlson talks with artist mentor Clarence Morgan about inspiration, history, and process.
Free and open to all
Register for in-person HERE.
Register for a virtual viewing HERE.
Thursday February 2
Evening Public Program: Music
Percussionist Ian Antonio and Ben LaMar Gay interact with Assaf Evron’s Collage for The Arts Club of Chicago
In-person Program
Performance in the Gallery 6:00 pm
Assaf Evron’s Collage for the Arts Club of Chicago is the fourth chapter in the Collages for Mies van der Rohe project, following the McCormick House, The Esplanade Apartment, and S.R. Crown Hall, This is the first interior installation in the series. The Image of a semi-transparent Conch Shell installed on the glass windows in the gallery corresponds to the form of the enclosed Mies staircase and echoes the ancient past of its geological veneer. In response, Michigan-based Percussionist Ian Antonio and Chicago multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay engage with the geology of the Club’s gallery, exploiting the reverberant nature of the terrazzo and travertine. In this performance, they deconstruct musical materials and re-combine them to make something new, a metaphor for the process of breaking down shells to make travertine.
Free and open to all
Register for in-person event here: https://www.eventbrite.
The Arts Club’s fall exhibition Upkeep overlaps in both time and topic with The Renaissance Society’s exhibition Nine Lives. Both group shows partake in the Feminist Art Coalition, a national initiative to explore the nuances of what feminisms might mean today. We bring together an artist from each exhibition to converse about areas of convergence or departure.
South African sculptor and visual artist Bronwyn Katz talks with Paris-based Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga about their related approaches to materials and shared interest in revisiting histories or stories from the past. An apropos pairing, the two dissect their engagement with sculpture, materials, storytelling, and revisited histories.
