Sightings Articles
Redefining Redlining on Chicago’s Southside
The tulips in Amanda Williams' art installation enact for residents who live in or pass through the area that tenacious double effect of urban redlining: the mark of the past is never entirely erased....
June 15, 2023
The Christian Who Was a Church of One
In a world that seems to me to offer precious little of the mantle of prophecy, I offer you William Blake....
February 17, 2022
Creating a Just Memory of the Pandemic
The importance of community art for processing our collective trauma...
April 1, 2021
The Precariousness of Care
Attending to each other and our communities is costly, messy, exhausting — and vital...
October 22, 2020
We Need Art to Help Us Heal, Now More than Ever
An invitation to process pain and to heal through the viewing and contemplation of contemporary Black art...
June 4, 2020
Andy Warhol’s Iconicity
Exploring the religious dimensions of the exhibit, "Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again," currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago ...
January 27, 2020
The Epistemology of Frida's Closet
Frida Kahlo is once again the subject of a major exhibition. Following shows at the Museo de Frida Kahlo (a.k.a., her home, La Casa Azul) in 2012 and then last fall at the Victoria and Albert in London, “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving” is...
April 15, 2019
The Art of Prayer Meets the Prayer of Art
Ed. Note: Both the Monday and Thursday columns this week feature current and recent exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago. In case you missed it, be sure to read Richard Rosengarten's essay from Monday, Native Sons? Of Gilded and Guilty Ages in...
October 18, 2018
Native Sons? Of Gilded and Guilty Ages in the Windy City
Ed. Note: Both the Monday and Thursday columns this week feature current and recent exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago. Stay tuned for Cynthia Lindner's reflections on the James Webb installation, "Prayer," currently on display at the Art In...
October 15, 2018
Puerto Rican Artists Shine Light on American Carnage
For two years Puerto Rico was illuminated from within. A curious work of art, located deep inside a limestone cave, deserved to be considered “religious” for multiple reasons. Reframing a remote rock formation rich with traces of indigenous history a...