Subterranean Isle by Jay Heikes at Shane Campbell Gallery

According to the press release, Heikes’ new paintings are meant to be “sculptural representations of Paleolithic cave paintings,” which is a principle hard to grasp for those of us who have never been to Lascaux. What is undeniable is how incredibly nostalgic and mystical his new abstractions felt at Shane Campbell. Faded pastel colors bled through highly laborious rubbings, and hand imprints, on top of highly textured surfaces, seemed frozen in time. As beautiful as staring at aged walls of ancient cities.

Shane Campbell Gallery
673 North Milwaukee
(312)226-2223
shanecampbellgallery.com

Best of Chicago 2011

The Owl

Logan Square nightlife has reached a tipping point with the opening of this giant 5am drinking complex. As the latest addition to the already-great Milwaukee Avenue tavern corridor—which includes The Boiler Room, Revolution Brewing, Cole’s, The Whistler and more—The Owl seals the neighborhood’s fate as a libation destination. This multi-room bar is surprisingly comfy for such a huge space, featuring plush couches, warm woodwork, mirrored walls, a dance floor and even a working fountain. An extensive craft-beer list and a kick-ass jukebox, featuring everything from Siouxsie to Sharon Jones, means your late-night session at the Owl is sure to be a hoot.

The Owl
2521 North Milwaukee
(773)235-5300
owlbarchicago.com

Audience choice:
Haymarket Pub & Brewery
737 West Randolph
(312)638-0700
haymarketbrewing.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Jeff Zimmermann’s “you know what you should do” 

Jeff Zimmermann’s colorful public mural follows in the steps of the great Pop painter James Rosenquist, in a collage of portraits, products and politics. Partially commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency, the mural responds to the topic of Lake Michigan’s health.

“you know what you should do”
By Jeff Zimmerman
Oak Street Beach, 1000 North Lake Shore

Best of Chicago 2011

“Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design” by Joseph Rosa and Zoe Ryan

An exhibition showcasing experimental architecture and graphic and industrial design necessarily demanded a cutting-edge catalogue. COMA Amsterdam/New York met the challenge with a book whose content changes depending on the direction it is read: front-to-back or back-to-front. The designers made an art object worthy of exhibition.

“Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design”
By Joseph Rosa and Zoe Ryan
Art Institute of Chicago, 160 pages, $30

Best of Chicago 2011

William J. O’Brien at The Renaissance Society

The multi-level table-display created to showcase William J. O’Brien’s ceramic and assemblage heads looked, at turns, like an alien ethnographic museum and a buffet of nightmares. O’Brien is one of Chicago’s best emerging artists, and The Renaissance Society gave him the space to prove it.

5811 South Ellis
renaissancesociety.org

Audience choice:
Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad at the Art Institute
111 South Michigan
(312)443-3600
artic.edu

Best of Chicago 2011

Belarus Free Theatre’s “Being Harold Pinter”

We’d like to tell you that we were long aware of the plight of the members of Belarus Free Theatre, suffering life-threatening oppression in pursuit of their art in their home country, but it wasn’t until a coalition of Chicago theater folk led by the Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare and Northwestern stitched together a one-month Chicago engagement that we’d ever heard of them. The move bought them time after a New York performance to suss out their next step, since going home to possible imprisonment was not a very good option. But after seeing them perform their original pastiche of the works and words of Harold Pinter in their own language on the Goodman stage opening night, where their performance gave new meaning to the power of art to change the world, we’ll never forget them. Or the benevolence of Chicago’s theater community, either.

Best of Chicago 2011

Poetry Foundation headquarters

Opened just in time for the upcoming centennial of the eponymous magazine that started it all, the brand new Poetry Foundation building brings founder Harriet Monroe’s long-elusive dream “to give to poetry her own place” into three-dimensional life. Primarily a headquarters for the staff of the foundation and magazine that have burgeoned since Ruth Lilly’s game-changing $100 million gift in 2002, the building invites the public into its handsome and quietly understated space with public events in a theater optimized for the human voice, a 30,000-volume poetry library and a graceful public garden. In a city too long associated with Capone, Ditka and Da Bears, there’s something, forgive us, poetic, about the soaring prominence of verse that this represents.

61 West Superior
(312)787-7070
poetryfoundation.org

Best of Chicago 2011

Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center

Thirty-five years ago, Jackie Taylor, a young Chicago actress raised in the Cabrini-Green housing projects, started the Black Ensemble Theater with the mission to “eradicate racism.” She worked toward that goal not by preaching, but rather by creating a congregation, for a BET show is not like any other theatrical experience you’re likely to encounter. With musicians placed front and center and an always-energetic cast singing and dancing in a musical rendition of an iconic black performer’s life, or perhaps just a jukebox musical built around the songs, say, of Luther Vandross, the audience is so engaged that it’s always surprising they don’t jump up on stage and join in. Well Taylor’s hard work, dedication and talents—she’s written, produced and directed many of their hit shows—has paid off in the recent opening of the nineteen-million-dollar Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center in Uptown, a performance venue that stands among the city’s finest. The debut show might be one of Taylor’s best, “The Jackie Wilson Story,” but rest assured, you’re really taking in the Jackie Taylor Story when you’re sitting in those seats.

Black Ensemble Theater
4450 North Clark
(773)769-4451
blackensembletheater.org

Best of Chicago 2011

Cedille Records

When one thinks of legendary Chicago-based record labels over the years, its jazz and blues companies often come to mind. And yet, with one of the country’s oldest and most reputable symphony orchestras, Chicago had been a mecca for recording firsts virtually since the dawn of the industry. Some of the earliest acoustic recordings were made here nearly a century ago, some of the first electrical recordings, the earliest high fidelity, the first stereo recordings, even early digital recordings, all within the classical genre. In 1989, then-University of Chicago law school student James Ginsburg created Cedille Records, the first Chicago-based classical music label since Mercury Living Presence some thirty years earlier. Ginsburg never did become a lawyer (there are three in his family, including his mother, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) but he did go on to create a Grammy Award-winning record label internationally known for its consistently high-quality recordings that fill in huge voids of repertoire and boast of imagination and innovation at a time when the industry by and large prefers to play it safe. As compressed and inferior-sound-quality downloads have become the status quo, Cedille bucks that trend by offering its downloads in true full-file CD-level quality bit rates that are twice the size of those sold on most download sites. Recent Cedille releases figure in six just-announced Grammy Award nominations for 2011 and the label shows no sign of slowing down. And while Cedille continues to showcase the best of Chicago classical artists performing underground repertoire by and large neglected by the major labels, its reputation has become such that it is actually bringing artists to Chicago to work with the label.

Cedille Records
1205 West Balmoral
(773)989-2515
cedillerecords.org

Audience choice:
Bloodshot Records
3039 West Irving Park
(773)604-5300
bloodshotrecords.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Department of Exhibition & Performance Spaces, Columbia College

The catalogues accompanying the curated contemporary art shows at Columbia College’s several exhibition venues are beautifully designed, intellectually engaging and free.

colum.edu

Best of Chicago 2011