Theaster Gates, White Sky, overcast (2014), All Images Courtesy White Cube Gallery

Now through July 5, the White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey presents an exhibition of new work by Theaster Gates, the installation artist and professor of visual art at the University of Chicago who draws from themes of individual and collective history, place and self, and empowerment in his work.  Freedom of Assembly continues and expands upon the artist’s approach to art as a vehicle for social-justice, communication, and critique.

Theaster Gates, Freedom of Assembly (Installation View)

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The Art Institute of Chicago has received a major donation of contemporary works this week, totaling 42 works valued at over $400 million, including iconic pieces from Andy Warhol, including an Elizabeth Taylor portrait and Mona Lisa Four Times, as well as several “Film Stills” from Cindy Sherman.  “It’s a powerful statement to have a collection of this international stature staying here in Chicago,” says Robert Levy, chairman of the Art Institute’s board. “It’s unbelievably exciting for the Art Institute, for the City of Chicago, for the entire art community of Chicago. It’s all good.” (more…)

Hedge Fund CEO Ken Griffin has gifted $10 million to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, a donation that will help construct the museum’s new gallery wing which will now bear his name.  “Ken has been a consistent and generous supporter of the arts in our community,” says Director Madeleine Grynsztejn.  “We are extremely grateful for this important gift, as it will support our Vision Campaign and bring exciting, innovative exhibitions to diverse audiences in Chicago and beyond.” (more…)

Artist Theaster Gates is interviewed in the most recent edition of BOMB Magazine, talking about his influences, his work at the University of Chicago, as well as its surrounding communities.  “One of the advantages that I have, being embedded in this Washington Park community and as an administrator at the University of Chicago, is that I come with a certain amount of cultural, intellectual, and political empathy,” Gates says. “This empathy allows me to feel more like an insider, and to experience a win for this community as a win for me too. It’s not just a political win, it’s also a “way-of-living” win.” (more…)

Mickalene Thomas is on Nowness this week, talking about her recent film profiling the life of her late moth, Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman.   “It allowed me to look at her not only as a subject—as my muse—but as a person. I really tried to understand her world, her own sexuality and femininity and beauty,” Thomas says. (more…)

ArtNews has published a profile on Michelle Grabner, the sculptor and curator tapped to curate this year’s Whitney Biennial.  “One of the interesting things about including an artist is that they really understand process from within, and I think that affects how Michelle approaches the works of art she selects and the exhibition itself,” says Whitney chief curator Donna De Salvo. “She has been a curator at a pioneering gallery, but also she is incredibly well published and has engagement with artists across the country. A mix of all those aspects were needed for participation in the Biennial.” (more…)

Roxy Paine, Carcass (2013), via Kavi Gupta

Chicago’s Kavi Gupta Gallery is currently showcasing an immense sculptural project by New York-based artist Roxy Paine, a series of sizable wooden dioramas, carved into uncanny models of an unnamed fast-food restaurant, and a control room, filled with switches, faders and television screens.

Roxy Paine, Control Room (2013), via Kavi Gupta (more…)

Theaster Gates is profiled in the current issue of the New Yorker, talking about his work, his life in Chicago, and his current project working with the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator to renovate and develop an artistic community on Chicago’s South Side.  “I told the artists, ‘We need to make the building work’… That was wrong. We don’t need to make the building work. We need to support you.” (more…)

A Chicago gallery owner has been sentenced to a 6 month prison sentence, with an additional 6 months of home confinement for the sale of fake artworks.  Alan Kass, 76, was also ordered to pay his buyers restitutions of up to $350,000.  “I misled people who, like me, enjoyed art,” Kass said in his court statement. “I disappointed my customers who put their trust in my knowledge. For this I am sincerely sorry.” (more…)

Financier and art collector Richard Hollander has donated a large block of photographs by the prominent photographer Edward Steichen to a trio of U.S. museums, ensuring that the artist’s work will be available to the public across the United States.  The photographs were purchased at directly from Steichen’s estate, and will be given to the Whitney Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Block Museum in Chicago.  “I’ve gotten the bug,” Hollander said. “Now I want to share my vision.” (more…)

A nanoscale study of paint chips from works by Pablo Picasso has strengthened historians’ claims that he may have been one of the first master painters to shift over from traditional oil paints to house paints.  Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory and Art Institute of Chicago discovered levels of zinc oxide and iron in Picasso’s work that matched the levels of 1930’s household paint brand Ripolin.  “We have opened the nanoworld to culture heritage.” Says researcher Volker Rose . (more…)