Chicago art exhibits to see at museums and galleries

Few creative and pop culture figures from the last 70 years are more widely recognized than Yoko Ono, the 92-year-old peace activist and former collaborator with such famed musicians as John Cage, Ornette Coleman and her late husband John Lennon.

Less known are her contributions to the visual and conceptual art worlds, like the groundbreaking role she played in Fluxus, an influential experimental movement in the 1960s and ‘70s. Then there are her innovative, sometimes banned films during those same decades, such as “FLY” (1970-71).

Myriad facets of this cultural dynamo will be open for exploration in “Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind,” a touring exhibition on view Oct. 18–Feb. 22, 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago Ave. The MCA is the show’s only U.S. venue.

This large-scale retrospective — organized by the Tate Modern in London, where it drew record crowds — features more than 200 objects, including a cross-section of Ono’s installations and physical artworks. And while “Music of the Mind” is sure to dominate the Chicago art world’s attention this fall, there are plenty of other notable exhibitions worth visiting. Here are 10 others.

Aaron Curry’s “Raw Dog”

Where: Corbett vs. Dempsey

When: Sept. 11–Nov. 1

The Chicago-trained Curry is best known for his brightly colored, biomorphic sculptures that humorously fuse modernist abstraction with the worlds of science fiction, cartoons and video games. His debut solo show in Chicago will feature a new body of wood sculptures, both wall-mounted and freestanding, as well as cereal box collages. Curry was born in San Antonio and now lives in Los Angeles, but he earned his bachelor of fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 and is represented in the MCA Chicago collection. Also a prolific printmaker, the artist was included in a contemporary etching show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2023–24. 2156 W. Fulton St.

“Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago”

Where: DePaul Art Museum

When: Sept. 11–Feb. 8, 2026

Springing from its roots as a Chicago street gang, the Young Lords Organization transformed itself in the 1960s into a civil rights group that advocated on behalf of a Puerto Rican community struggling with gentrification. One of its highest-profile acts of resistance occurred in May 1969, when the group occupied the Stone Administration Building at McCormick Seminary, now DePaul’s School of Music North Building.

This exhibition, curated by DePaul professor Jacqueline Lazú, looks back at the impact and legacy of the Young Lords. The show tells the story via archival materials, historical artifacts, photographs, murals, prints and a central multimedia installation created by multidisciplinary artist Arif Smith in collaboration with Rebel Betty, a Puerto Rican artist, poet and cultural worker. 935 W. Fullerton Ave.

“Tiffany Lamps: Beyond the Shade”

Where: Driehaus Museum

When: Sept. 12–March 15, 2026 

Louis Comfort Tiffany was a leading light in art, architecture and design of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the lamps his studio produced from the 1880s through the 1920s have become nothing short of iconic. Tiffany desk, table and floor lamps in a wide range of styles will form the heart of this show, which was organized by Alexandra Ruggiero, a glass specialist who serves as a consulting curator at the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York. Also on view will be complementary selections like glass and pottery vases, enamel and bronze boxes and a leaded-glass fire screen. In all, more than 50 objects drawn from the extensive Tiffany holdings of the Driehaus Museum and Richard H. Driehaus Art Exhibition Lending Foundation will be featured. 50 E. Erie St.

“Charting Imaginary Worlds: Why Fantasy and Games Are Inseparable”

Where: Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, Joseph Regenstein Library

When: Sept. 15–Dec. 12

This exhibition might take place in a library, but it’s not musty or pedantic. Instead, this show examines the inextricable relationship between tabletop and video games, such as “Dungeons & Dragons” and “The Witcher,” and the literary fantasy genre and its make-believe worlds of magic spells, ancient riddles, angry monsters and shadowy castles. This exhibit chronicles how the two have influenced and shaped each other for more than a century. Of course, an exhibition about video games will have three playable options — “Adventure” (1980), “Golden Axe II” (1991) and “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” (2024)” — alongside books, maps, toys, props, costumes, screenshots and video clips. 1100 E. 57th St.

“Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler and Artists’ Experiments on Paper”

Where: Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University

When: Sept. 17–Dec. 14

Helen Frankenthaler, who died in 2011 at age 83, is one of the legendary figures in post-World War II Abstract Expressionism and a pioneer of color field painting. The artist did not use a brush in any traditional sense but employed the techniques contained in the show’s title to achieve her often visually poetic compositions. The core of this show will be the first public display of 34 prints and working proofs from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, in which the artist transfers the look and feel of her paintings into a very different medium. In 2023, the Block was one of 10 university art museums in the United States to receive a portfolio of such works on paper along with funding to support accompanying interpretation and public engagement. 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston

“SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change”

Where: Chicago Architecture Biennial, locations around the city

When: Sept. 19–Feb. 28, 2026

Established in 2016 to honor Chicago’s celebrated architectural legacy and showcase the field’s innovative designers, this international expo has become one of the most important in the world. This sixth edition will highlight projects by 100 architects, artists, and designers including La Cabina de la Curiosidad (Quito, Ecuador), Hardel Le Bihan Architectes (Paris) and Sean Lally (Chicago). The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events will host the opening program Sept. 19 at the Chicago Cultural Center.

“Theaster Gates: Unto Thee”

Where: Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago

When: Sept. 23–Feb. 22

Theaster Gates has gained international acclaim for his investigations of time, memory and decay in which he reclaims and recontextualizes objects and even buildings closely tied to the Black experience. The Smart will spotlight this essential Chicago artist in a milestone mid-career survey that will include large-scale installations, music, film and what the museum is calling a “redeployment” of seven groups of scrapped objects and materials from the University of Chicago, where Gates is on the visual arts faculty. These include pews from the Bond Chapel, granite from the Logan Center and vitrines from the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. Gates will also be spotlighted in a loosely concurrent show Oct. 16–Dec. 20 at the gallery GRAY Chicago. Smart Museum, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave. Gray Chicago, 2044 W. Carroll Ave. 

Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust

Where: Elmhurst Art Museum

When: Sept. 6–Jan. 4, 2026

The design principle of shakkei or “borrowed scenery” originated centuries ago in East Asian gardens, incorporating existing natural features and architectural elements. This is the first major museum exhibition for two Chicago-based artists, Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust, who draw on this concept in distinctive ways in their immersive, kaleidoscopic works. “We come from entirely different cultural heritages,” Lake said in a press statement, “yet I believe our practices arise from the same profound soul — a flood of colors, rich symbolism, rhythmic patterns and metaphor.” On view in this show, which is part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, will be recent large-scale works by both artists as well as a collaborative installation combining their design languages. 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst

“Scott Burton: Shape Shift”

Where: Wrightwood 659

When: Oct. 3–Dec. 20

In the 1980s, Scott Burton was one of the hottest artists around, with art museums and public art programs clamoring to obtain examples of his furniture-inspired sculptures. Minimalist at first glance, the forms become more complex when carefully viewed. But the 50-year-old artist died of AIDS in 1990, and shockingly, his artistic profile quickly diminished. This touring exhibition, the largest ever mounted of Burton’s work, seeks to recalibrate his place in recent art history through a major reexamination of his accomplishments and legacy in the realms of conceptual, public and queer art. Organized by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, it encompasses nearly 40 sculptures, as well as photographs, ephemera and the only known extant video of his performance work. 659 W. Wrightwood Ave.

“Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination”

Where: Art Institute of Chicago

When: Oct. 4–Jan. 5

“Isms” have long been important in the art world. Symbolism was a loose, late 19th-century movement that emerged in France and Belgium, then spread across Europe, with an emphasis on emotion and ideas, as opposed to naturalism and realism. With more than 85 prints and drawings from the Art Institute’s ample holdings in this realm, this exhibition showcases famed practitioners like James Ensor, Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, as well as such lesser-known figures as Emilie Mediz-Pelikan, Léon Spilliaert (the Art Institute recently acquired his “Self-Portrait on a Blue Background”) and Gustav Adolf Mossa. One of the show’s main draws will be a black-and-white lithograph version of an iconic work: Edvard Munch’s vision of existentialist angst, “The Scream.” 111 S. Michigan Ave.