Rachel Niffenegger

People should not get married nor should painters receive awards until reaching the age of 30 for the same reason: lack of maturity, but in the case of recently turned 24-year-old Rachel Niffenegger, possessing the uncanny ability to turn a palate of pinks, purples and pearlescents into grisly figurative masses, one can make an exception (not to mention an entirely new award). With her solo exhibition at the Post Family’s Family Room last December, she continued a move into sculpture with little stylistic discontinuity between that and her painting. Next, she travels to Miami with Imperfect Articles at the NADA Art Fair.

rachelniffenegger.com

Best of Chicago 2009

The reliefs at Von Steuben Math and Science Academy

The WPA-era murals featured at Lane Tech and other Chicago Public Schools through The Chicago Mural Preservation Project are widely known. While these works of art vividly depict scenes from American and world history, the artwork at Von Steuben Math and Science Academy seems to be aimed at one particular group—teenaged boys. Nestled along the North Branch of the Chicago River and surrounded by a walkway filled with wildflowers and willow trees, the artwork is a series of reliefs running underneath the cornice of the school building. The first one depicts a football player in an old Knute Rockne-era helmet. The second, a petite young woman covering her breasts with her forearms. The third shows the woman with her forearms opened, exposing her breasts for all to see. Football? Breasts? Is there anything else that a 15-year-old boy could possibly be thinking about?

5039 North Kimball

Best of Chicago 2009

Michael Shannon

It’s humbling when big-shot Hollywood actors like William Peterson return to their Chicago theater roots, but for stage actor turned Oscar nominee Michael Shannon, he never really left home. Raised in Lexington, Kentucky and Chicago, Shannon rose to prominence as a founding member of the tiny A Red Orchid Theatre. After acting in a run of lesser Hollywood movies, he made waves in films “Shotgun Stories” and “Revolutionary Road.” Shannon’s portrayal of the hopelessly empty John Givings landed him a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nomination for “Road” this winter (he lost to the late Heath Ledger). After wrapping up another tremendous performance in Red Orchid’s latest production, “Mistakes Were Made,” Shannon demonstrated why he’s still our golden boy. 

Best of Chicago 2009

Desire Under the Elms, Goodman Theatre

Goodman artistic director Robert Falls made his case for the primacy of Eugene O’Neill as America’s most important playwright by “curating” and producing a three-month festival of work entitled “A Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century” and at the epicenter he placed his own supercharged take on “Desire Under the Elms.” Falls stripped away the script’s maternalized majestic elm tree and replaced it with pure masculine commotion, all rocks and carcasses and visceral energy. Against that backdrop, further personified by the gritty performances of Brian Dennehy and Pablo Schreiber, Carla Gugino should not have had a chance, but instead stole the show in a portrayal both tragic and sensual all at once. Folks either loved or hated Falls’ rendering, with Broadway falling into the latter camp, but it demanded to be reckoned with and, even better, set off a long conversation that carried us through equally powerful and extraordinarily risky renditions, from other creative minds, of “The Emperor Jones,” “Mourning Becomes Electra,” “The Sea Plays,” “The Hairy Ape” and “Strange Interlude,” each of which had camps of fans and detractors, and each of which fueled enough argument to warm an especially cold Chicago winter.

Audience choice:
The History Boys, Timeline

Best of Chicago 2009

An organized, free-cigarette tracker

Don’t get us wrong. The Tamale guy at 1am at Innertown is a godsend. But we could (basically) just as easily grab a bite on our way home. What would be REALLY beneficial—given these unjust economic times—is if everyone knew where and when the free-smoke-suppliers were dishing out cigs for nothin’. Those people who do that job are more popular than Zack Morris. While it might not exactly help our initiative to quit (we really do have that initiative, really), we would feel much more comfortable being unhealthy for free. Honestly, who wouldn’t?

Best of Chicago 2009

The Breakfast Club

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” may have made the most of Chicago’s illustrious, filmable locations, but “The Breakfast Club,” set in the fictional suburb of Shermer, Illinois, is the better film. Laughs, tears, stolen kisses, lessons learned. High school was awful and great. We’re all athletes, brains, princesses, basket cases and criminals. Hughes knew that better than anyone.

Audience choice:
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

Best of Chicago 2009

Twitter is not the most corrupt social network. It’s the most theatrically corrupt.

Best audience choices:
“How do you change the ribbon on this thing?”; “Ran into Algren on Division, grabbed a whiskey and some tapas”; “And then when the former Mayor Daley, he was a corker wasn’t he?, was in office the folks there on the west side voted for him because he co (What? You thought he’d get it done in 140?)”; “Milk steak, and jelly beans.”

Best of Chicago 2009

Bill Murray

We love Bill Murray. Everyone loves Bill Murray. We still claim the funny man and versatile actor even though he hasn’t lived in Chicago for years and years. He pops up at Cubs games to generous applause, and he can still get laughs from an audience by just, well, standing there. Think of the classics—“Caddyshack,” “Stripes,” “Ghostbusters,” “Groundhog Day,” “Lost in Translation”—then think of all his work with the enigmatic Jim Jarmusch. If you haven’t seen his cameo in the recent “Zombieland,” do yourself a favor and witness just how funny Bill Murray can still be.

Audience choice:
John Belushi

Best of Chicago 2009

Lincoln Hall

The shiny new club in the old Three Penny space is so fresh it still has that “new-venue” smell. A somewhat upscale bar—with a fine beer selection, one might add—leads the way into a two-level mid-sized rock joint, a decent open space to swallow up the topnotch sound system as the balcony hawks rest at tables. From the brothers that own Schubas, Lincoln Hall looks to expand on the tradition its sibling venue has implemented. Last weekend, the Eccentric Soul Revue blitzed a nearly full house as swooners swooned and musical love was made.

2424 North Lincoln
(773)525-2508
lincolnhallchicago.com

Best of Chicago 2009

ThreeWalls’ “You Oughta Be In Fangs”

Who needs “Twilight” when there’s a vampiric speakeasy around? This past May, ThreeWalls, a non-profit gallery space and artist residency in the West Loop, hosted its annual spring fundraiser at the Museum of Surgical Science. The theme was an idiosyncratic combination of vampire fantasy and Gatsbyesque dinner party complete with plenty of booze, fake blood and plastic canines.

Best of Chicago 2009