Kerry James Marshall reviews his mural ahead of Monday’s dedication ceremony. Photo: Nancy Stone for the Chicago Tribune.
Today, Kerry James Marshall is dedicating his 132-foot mural on the facade of the Chicago Cultural Center. The artist’s largest work to date, RUSH MORE is an homage to the women who have shaped Chicago’s cultural scene, and features portraits of Oprah Winfrey, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, and writer Sandra Cisneros. The artist charged the city $1 for the work, which was envisioned as new Mount Rushmore for Chicago.
Also this week:
- Kerry James Marshall is at work on a second public artwork, this one in Des Moines, honoring the twelve Black lawyers who founded the National Bar Association in 1924. Entitled A Monumental Journey, the new abstract sculpture is expected to go on view this spring in a small park across the Des Moines River from City Hall.
- Jenny Holzer and designer Virgil Abloh collaborated on t-shirt designs benefiting Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles. The shirts feature Holzer’s famous truism, “Abuse Of Power Comes As No Surprise,” as well as the artist’s 2017 update, “Abuse of Flower Comes As No Surprise.”
- Yinka Shonibare MBE (RA) will be exhibiting his first public artwork in New York in March. The Public Art Fund will be installing Wind Sculpture (SG) I at Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park on March 7, where it will be on view through October 14, 2018.
Events & exhibitions
New York City
- Wednesday, December 6 at 7pm—Walton Ford and writer Emma Cline will be in conversation with WNYC’s Mythili Rao for Gagosian Quarterly’s inaugural talk at The Greene Space. The event is being held in conjunction with Ford’s newest exhibition, Calafia, at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills through December 16.
Boston
- (un)expected families, a new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, is opening on Saturday and will be on view through June 17, 2018. Featuring 80 pictures taken by American photographers from the 19th century to today, the exhibition explores the definition of the American family and features work by Carrie Mae Weems and LaToya Ruby Frazier among others.
Miami
- The Bass Museum is opening a new solo exhibition by Mika Rottenberg on Thursday. The self-titled exhibition is the U.S. debut of several new works by the artist, including a new variant of her recent commission for Skulptur Projekte Münster, Cosmic Generator (loaded #2). On view through April 30, 2018.
Fayetteville, AR
- Friday, December 8 from 7-8pm—Carrie Mae Weems is speaking at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as the last lecture of the museum’s 2017 Distinguished Speaker Series.
Eugene, OR
- The University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is hosting an eight-month exhibition of Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads. The sculptural series was installed in the museum’s north courtyard on Friday where it will remain through June 24, 2018.
Jakarta, Indonesia
- A new museum in Indonesia, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), is hosting an inaugural exhibition entitled Art Turns. World Turns. Featuring work by Ai Weiwei, Andy Warhol, and Cai Guo-Qiang among others, the exhibition will be on view through March 18, 2018.