Jimmy Robert, “Vis-à-Vis”
Produced by the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Design, Publishing, and New Media Department for the MCA Monographs series, the exhibition catalogue for Jimmy Robert’s solo exhibition integrates three varied paper sizes and stocks to present three streams of information within one book.

Jimmy Robert “Vis-à-Vis,” $25, mcachicagostore.org

Best of Chicago 2012

Bring Your Own Beamer at the MCA

BYOB is a potluck for video artists, who contribute to this one-night group show by bringing art and a projector (beamer). Although it first debuted in Chicago at Pilsen’s Kunsthalle New in March, the BYOB event at the MCA in October was meaningful because artists chose the art exhibited in the museum, at least temporarily.

Bring Your Own Beamer
byobworldwide.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Andrew Bird & Ian Schneller’s Sonic Arboretum at the MCA

Could anyone but Andrew Bird mix horticulture with orchestration? In December, the whistle blower had everyone heading to their dusty dictionary when he introduced a Sonic Arboretum exhibit at the MCA. With sculptor collaborator Ian Schneller, the duo planted the seeds for a forest of seventy “plant-shaped audio horn speakers powered by custom-made tube amplifiers” that covered the museum’s atrium. Even better, Bird performs two special concerts with the sonic sculpture doubling as his P.A. Looks like there’s a new king of the forest.

Through December 31, 2011
Concerts on December 21 and 22, 2011
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago
(312)397-4010
mcachicago.org/exhibitions

Best of Chicago 2011

“Touch and Go: Ray Yoshida and his Spheres of Influence” at the Sullivan Galleries

Ray Yoshida forged a distinctly mid-century Chicago style and this retrospective proves it. Curators John Corbett and Jim Dempsey once again tapped their deep knowledge of Chicago art history by including Yoshida’s circle of influences and peers within the exhibition. What emerges is not only a comprehensive survey of how Yoshida developed Imagism, but also how it stuck in the works of his friends and became a new milieu that artists still learn from today.

33 South State, 7th floor
(312)629-6635
saic.edu/exhibitions

Audience choice:

“Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy”
220 East Chicago
(312)280-2660
mcachicago.org

Best of Chicago 2010

Ben Russell

This year marked the MCA’s one-hundredth 12×12 exhibition, the museum’s showcase for emerging artists based in Chicago. These coveted shows grant artists exposure to a broad audience, which is why Ben Russell, who is well liked in experimental film circles and by visitors to his Pilsen apartment gallery, was this year’s best; he is deserving of greater exposure.

Ben Russell
1716 South Morgan
dimeshow.com

Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago
mcachicago.org

The Art Institute of Chicago

The entire back section of the Art Institute’s gift shop is nothing but jewelry: an international compilation of worldwide imports and wearable art. Beneath the glass counter, choose between trinkets made from kimono fabric, paper-mâché, precious gems, recycled birch bark and patina bronze. If you’re on a cheaper budget, above the counter are hand-blown glass pendants, amber earrings and pop-art bangles. The varied selection reflects the museum’s multiplicity: necklaces can be reproductions of everything from African fertility dolls to Salvador Dali’s “Daddy Longlegs of the Evening.”

111 S. Michigan
(800)518-4214
artic.edu

Audience choice
Museum of Contemporary Art
220 E. Chicago
(312)280-2660

Best of Chicago 2008