Flavorpill Chicago Events

Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

2009-07-09T12:30:00Z

Ongoing

Daily (7:30am–7:30pm)

@ Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

Escape the roaring cars on Lake Shore Drive and the crowds at Lincoln Park Zoo by slipping through the unobtrusive entrance to the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool. Created in the mid-1930s, this often-overlooked garden was designed by Prairie School landscape architect Alfred Caldwell, who also worked on several of Frank Lloyd Wright's projects. The Lily Pool lets you see Caldwell's work without the influence of Wright, but the garden is still pure Prairie School subterfuge: it appears to be a natural, weed-filled Midwestern grassland — complete with rocky outcrops — but it was carefully designed and cultivated as a miniature wilderness. It's also the perfect place for a picnic.

Graceland Cemetery

2009-07-09T13:00:00Z

Ongoing

Daily (8am–4:30pm)

@ Graceland Cemetery

Hidden away on Chicago's north side, this secret memento of the city's architectural history is a large, rambling Victorian-style cemetery. Filled with winding roads, elaborate tombs, and 19th-century landscaping, Graceland Cemetery can be explored by car, bike, or on foot. This is no ordinary graveyard – known as the "Cemetery of Architects," Graceland is the final resting place of famed architects such as Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, and Mies van der Rohe. You can also visit the graves of artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and boxer Jack Johnson, and view striking monuments such as Sullivan's Getty tomb and the Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum.

The Big World: Recent Art from China

2009-07-09T13:00:00Z

Apr 25 – Aug 30

Mondays–Thursdays (8am–7pm)

Fridays (8am–6pm)

Saturdays (9am–6pm)

Sundays (10am–6pm)

@ Chicago Cultural Center

Since the Chicago Cultural Center last presented an exhibition of recent art from China 12 years ago, the country has experienced transformative economic growth, the raw blooming of its mega-cities, and the meteoric rise of its artists on the international scale. Different shades of this cultural scenario infuse The Big World, the venue's current survey, which features large works in a range of media, from figurative paintings and conceptual photographs to hefty sculptures. The lineup includes at least one outsized art-star, Ai Weiwei, but the show is mostly given over to lesser-known artists. Zhao Liang, among them, is one of the highlights, with a video that lingers patiently over fleeting, offbeat incidents in the urban milieu, all of which seem freighted with meaning.

Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum

2009-07-09T14:30:00Z

Sep 27, 2008 – July 26

Mondays–Wednesdays (9:30am–4:30pm)

Thursdays (9:30am–8pm)

Fridays–Saturdays (9:30am–4:30pm)

Sundays (noon–5pm)

@ Chicago History Museum

In this glittering costume exhibition, the Chicago History Museum presents a rarely seen collection of haute couture fashions designed for the residents who helped put the chic in Chicago. All the pieces are culled from the museum's permanent collection, and range in dates from 1861 to 2004. Garments include an ornate Emile Pingat silk gown from 1878, a whisper-thin chiffon Vionnet design made for Mrs. Potter Palmer II in 1938, and a bombastic 1954 "butterfly" dress by British innovator Charles James that weighs 17 pounds.

Chicago Model City

2009-07-09T14:30:00Z

Opens Thursday June 11 (5:30–7pm)

June 11 – Nov 20

Daily (9:30am–5pm)

@ Chicago Architecture Foundation

As the city celebrates the centennial of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago (if you don't think it's brilliant, try navigating a metropolis that's not laid out on a grid), the Chicago Architecture Foundation opens an exhibition highlighting the city's history, infrastructure, geography, and future. The show, designed to be a permanent fixture at CAF, is divided into five sections that explore Chicago as global, connected, green, beautiful, and new. Photographs, maps, videos, and a huge scale model of the Loop are all incorporated to help viewers grasp the intricacies of urban planning.

Harry Potter: The Exhibition

2009-07-09T14:30:00Z

Apr 30 – Sep 27

Mondays–Saturdays (9:30am–9pm)

Sundays (11am–9pm)

@ Museum of Science and Industry

Raised eyebrows and a few chuckles greeted the 1990s announcement that an exhibit of Star Wars movie memorabilia would tour such respected museums as the Smithsonian Institution — but after it set its own museum box office records, no one was laughing. Once bitten by the blockbuster bug, traditional bastions of education and culture have gone enthusiastically mainstream, from Ravinia seasons packed with pop headliners to this collection of Hogwartsiana at the Museum of Science and Industry. Muggles of all ages will appreciate the stagecraft behind the Hollywood versions of J.K. Rowling's phenomenally successful bildungsroman, plus a preview of this summer's new theatrical release, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Clare E. Rojas: Believe Me

2009-07-09T15:00:00Z

May 16 – July 25

Tuesdays–Fridays (10am–6pm)

Saturdays (11am–5pm)

@ Kavi Gupta Gallery

For her second exhibition at Kavi Gupta Gallery, Clare Rojas returns with a carefully conceived installation of her distinctive gouache paintings, merging a rustic folk-art style with the self-assured polish of a savvy illustrator. Her works have the feeling of fairy tales, with birds, animals, and shifty-eyed humans appearing as players in obscure but fateful undertakings. And, in classic fairy-tale form, there's also a darker side to the plucky proceedings, hovering like an ominous shadow. Ranging in scale from intimate to mural-sized, Rojas' paintings are presented here within a larger hand-crafted environment; smaller works hang from a row of pegs against a blue-painted wall, decorated with wooden moldings, while a nearby bookshelf sports a rogue's gallery of head-and-shoulder portraits.

Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000–2007

2009-07-09T15:30:00Z

May 16 – Sep 13

Mondays–Wednesdays (10:30am–5pm)

Thursdays–Fridays (10:30am–9pm)

Saturdays–Sundays (10am–5pm)

@ The Art Institute of Chicago

Keeping to his own path, Cy Twombly has developed a singular idiom over five decades. His energetic paintings are marked by blotches and gestural scrawls that bring to mind calligraphy or some kind of primordial graffiti. The Art Institute opens its Modern Wing with an exhibition of 32 recent works (2000-2007) by the living legend, most inspired by floral forms or the landscapes of Virginia and coastal Italy. With their equivocal leanings and buried references, Twombly's paintings often beckon to be deciphered, but his newer works seem as invested in a more immediate, emotional response. Beginning with lively works on paper, the exhibition builds towards immense paintings that are color-saturated and sumptuous, calmly beautiful and yet — with red peonies blossoming like wounds — somewhat menacing as well.

Pop Sizzle Hum & Single Channels

2009-07-09T16:00:00Z

June 12 – July 31

Tuesdays–Saturdays (11am–5pm)

@ Tony Wight Gallery

A crop of painting-focused group shows has sprouted in the West Loop this summer. While you'll find some appealing works in all of them, we're partial to Pop Sizzle Hum at Tony Wight, featuring Judy Ledgerwood, Steven Husby, Carrie Gundersdorf, and Pamela Fraser. If the show is on the slender side, with three of the four artists represented by single paintings, that quality is largely a virtue. Effective in its economy, the exhibition is like a pithy conversation about approaches to abstraction, rather than the usual theme party where everyone arrives in similar outfits and jockeys for control of the music. Adding to the discussion is the concurrent exhibition Single Channels, an enjoyable sequence of animated videos.

Of This Land: The Artist's Touch

2009-07-09T16:00:00Z

Apr 24 – July 18

Tuesdays–Fridays (11am–6pm)

Saturdays (9am–5pm)

Sundays (noon–5pm)

@ Salvage One

Nestled inside the labyrinthine West Loop antiques-and-architecture warehouse that is Salvage One, Of This Land: The Artist's Touch is a unique exhibition experience. The star of the show is Geneva-based artist Diana McNish, whose whimsical, expressive mixed-media sculptures feel quite at home in this eclectic shop. Each piece, anchored by a figure — an animal, a mythological creature, characters like Punch and Judy — begins with a driftwood base and steel supports. The artist then builds her imaginative pieces with papier maché, fiberglass, resin, acrylic paint, and found objects like sea shells and vintage clothing. McNish, who is in her 70s and self-taught, occasionally evokes the dark surrealism of Giacometti and even Jan Svankmajer, but maintains a visionary style all her own.

Prairie Avenue House Museums

2009-07-09T17:00:00Z

Ongoing

Wednesdays–Sundays (noon–3pm)

@ Glessner House Museum

Chicago's historic Prairie Avenue district — the site of the 1812 Fort Dearborn Massacre — became known after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 as the "original Gold Coast." In its prime, it was an elite neighborhood of Victorian mansions occupied by Armours, Pullmans, Fields, and Kimballs. The most well-preserved of the remaining few houses here are Glessner House, whose fortress-like exterior belies its enchanting, oak-paneled English Arts and Crafts interior; and Clarke House, Chicago's oldest, and the best surviving example of the Greek Revival architecture so popular in the Gilded Age.

Million Dollar Quartet

2009-07-10T00:30:00Z

Dec 4, 2008 – Aug 30

Wednesdays (2 & 7:30pm)

Thursdays (7:30pm)

Fridays (8pm)

Saturdays (5 & 8pm)

Sundays (3:30 & 6:30pm)

@ Apollo Theater

In the days before corporate behemoths controlled the music industry — yes, there used to be one — some of the smallest labels produced the nation's biggest hits. No little shop was mightier than Memphis' Sun Studios, a converted garage where impresario Sam Phillips discovered and nurtured many of rock 'n roll's pioneering stars. On December 4, 1956, Sun alumnus Elvis Presley stopped by for a visit. He ended up joining Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis for an impromptu, now-legendary jam session, recorded and later released as the Million Dollar Quartet. It was the only time the foursome would come together, but thanks to this rousing, hit-filled jukebox musical, you've got a chance to relive it.

Xaviera Hollander, The Happy Hooker: Portrait of a Sexual Revolutionary (2008)

2009-07-10T00:30:00Z

Thursday July 9 (7:30pm)

@ Portage Theater

Published two years before Erica Jong's Fear of Flying, Xaviera Hollander's The Happy Hooker remains not only a classic taboo-buster, but one of the earliest flashpoints of sex-positive feminist writing to have emerged from the '70s sexual revolution. Robert Dunlap's documentary (co-written by Madame X herself) contextualizes the life and work of Hooker's notorious author, from her introduction to prostitution through her present-day iconic stature. It's been a long journey from Hollander's deportation to today's almost comical plethora of porny bios. With clips and testimonials featuring everyone from Larry King to Candida Royalle, Xaviera gives us a fascinating roadmap.

Rod Blagojevich Superstar!

2009-07-10T00:30:00Z

Mar 26 – Aug 9

Thursdays–Fridays (7:30pm)

Saturdays (3, 7 & 9:30pm)

Sundays (3pm)

@ Chicago Shakespeare Theater

The freshly ousted governor of Illinois exploited its top job, squandered its treasure, hamstrung its legislature, and tarnished its reputation. Rod Blagojevich is a big fish in a shallow barrel, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fire away. If laughter is the best medicine, Second City's cathartic swipe at America's easiest target should help Illinois recover from a chronic hemorrhage of statesmanship, and since we can't get back those millions Blago illegally spent on FDA-rejected foreign vaccines, satire may be our only cure. This show, now running for a limited time at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, is billed as a takeoff of '70s rock musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar; in that spirit, it amounts to a public crucifixion.

America: All Better!

2009-07-10T01:00:00Z

Ongoing

Tuesdays–Thursdays (8pm)

Fridays–Saturdays (8 & 11pm)

Sundays (7pm)

@ The Second City

The 2008 election may have delivered a ray of hope, but storm clouds still hang above us. That's the uneasy premise of Second City's sardonically titled new mainstage revue that, like the 44th president himself, offers something positive in a time of uncertainty. Yes, America delivers the obligatory Blagojevich and recession bits, but it mostly spares us the depressing headlines in favor of more cheerful frivolity. With a Russian gymnast tumbling through the audience while drinking its alcohol, Cornel West pontificating on MTV Spring Break, and Rahm Emanuel as executive branch Enforcer-in-Chief, this show simultaneously argues for and provides some much-needed mirth.

Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

2009-07-10T01:30:00Z

Saturday July 4 (8pm)

Sunday July 5 (8pm)

Thursday July 9 (8:30pm)

@ Gene Siskel Film Center

The Walker Brothers were one of the biggest pop sensations of the 1960s; Scott Walker's shaggy hair and baritone croon made him a charismatic frontman and fan-club favorite. The American trio met its greatest successes in the UK, where hit ballads such as "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" surpassed even the Beatles, but after the group split in 1967, Scott's subsequent solo career and withdrawal from mainstream life transformed him into one of the most enigmatic figures of the alternative-music scene. Stephen Kijak's documentary explores Walker's rise, fall, and rise again as a dark, eclectic, and conceptual artist, looking to those he influenced — including David Bowie, Radiohead, and Goldfrapp — and the reclusive Mr. Walker himself.

2009-07-10T05:00:00Z

July 10–16

Daily

@ Gene Siskel Film Center

In Two or Three Things I Know About Her, Jean-Luc Godard curbs his usual bravado to muse on the title's double entendre — Her refers to both the beloved (but rapidly changing) Paris and housewife/prostitute Juliette Janson (Marina Vlady). A free-associative approach gives the intellectually omnivorous director a chance to weigh in on politics, consumerism, Roland Barthes, and that New Wave fixation: cinema and the liberated woman. Yet the film is remarkable not for its au courant cynicism, but its Pop-art aesthetic. Raoul Coutard's CinemaScope camera accentuates Lichtenstein-like colors, and gracefully captures a city — and a woman — adjusting to the modern age.