10 Extraordinary Exhibitions Taking Place In Chicago This Year

From Prince to Paul Cézanne, there is something for everybody!

During the peak of the pandemic, there were times when even those who weren’t necessarily frequent sight-seers or museum-goers would have done almost anything to be out and about exploring Chicago’s wealth of attractions and institutions. The trials and tribulations of the last few years have given us a fresh reminder of how many fantastic features our great city has. One of Chicago’s most impressive qualities is undeniably its collection of world-class museums and the array of exhibits they offer.

With Chicago alive and kicking once again, there is a wide range of exhibitions across the city. If there has ever been a time to experience firsthand the transformative power of art and science, and the astounding feats of the human race, it is now after the tumultuous and unprecedented years that we’ve just endured.

Here are some of the most unique exhibitions taking place in Chicago this year that you simply cannot miss.

1. Human+Nature

Of all the exhibitions to have set foot in Chicago, Morton Arboretum’s most recent exhibition, Human + Nature, is one of the ones we were most eagerly anticipating.

Highlighting the deep roots between humans and trees, the Arboretum’s arbor-inspired exhibition has been a huge success showcasing five breathtaking sculptures by renowned multi-disciplinary South African artist Daniel Popper. The colossal 20-25-foot natural installations are situated at various locations across the 1,700-acre tree museum and research center leading guests to areas they may not have explored before.

While Popper’s work has featured at hit music festivals such as Electric Forest, Burning Man, Boom Festival in Portugal, and Afrikaburn in the Tankwa Karoo in South Africa, Human+Nature is the largest exhibition of Popper’s work to date. The five sculptures were crafted exclusively for the Arboretum and will next month be joined by three brand-new sculptures, bringing the grand total to 8 gigantic arbor-inspired creations.

You can read more about it here.

Where: Morton Arboretum
Dates: Happening now – May 2023
Website/Tickets: mortonarb.org/humannature

2. Prince: The Immersive Experience

Music lovers, casual fans, and superfans of legendary musician Prince can rejoice in the dynamic, multisensory, first-of-its-kind immersive experience, making its worldwide debut in Chicago on June 9.

Superfly and The Prince Estate are collaborating to present Prince: The Immersive Experience, a multi-faceted musical universe revolving around the iconic artist. 10 spaces packed with Prince fandom showcase his prolific discography, iconic fashion sense, and mind-blowing musical genius.

In one of the many highlights, fans can step into Prince’s iconic Purple Rain album cover for a snappable selfie. Plus, music lovers will be thrilled to check out a recreation of Prince’s famed recording studio in Paisley Park, where you can have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play music producer and mix the original sessions from one of Prince’s smash hits.

You can read more about it here.

Where: 540 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Dates: June 9 – October 9, 2022
Website/Tickets: feverup.com/112147

3. Vivian Maier In Color

Talking of selfies, the renowned photographer Vivian Maier was a master of selfies long before they were a thing. The late Chicago photographer Vivian Maier, whose work only gained notoriety after her death has become a cult phenomenon in the global photographer community.

Whilst working as a nanny in Chicago Maeir snapped hundreds of thousands of photos of everyday moments and life unfolding in the Chicago suburbs as well as numerous arresting self-portraits. She had an affinity with the poor due to her own economic constraints, and as such her photos often also portray the lives of those struggling to get by. Falling behind on payments Maier was forced to auction her negatives in her later years, which went on to become a viral phenomenon and today a much-sought-after collector’s item.

Vivian Maier: In Color features 65 color images made during her time as a suburban Chicago nanny from the 1950s to 1970s, most of which have never been on display, as well as film clips, quotations, and sound bites.  

You can read more about it here.

Where: Chicago History Museum
Dates: Happening now – January 2023
Website/Tickets: chicagohistory.org/exhibition/vivian-maier-in-color

4. Nick Cave: Forothermore

The work of another local legend will be on show at the Museum of Contemporary Art starting this month. From May 14, the Museum of Contemporary Art will begin hosting the first career-spanning retrospective of internationally renowned Chicago artist Nick Cave’s work this month which has been dubbed his largest show ever in Chicago

The exhibition, dedicated to those who exist as the “other”, will feature more than 75 of Cave’s acclaimed works stretching back to 1989 and Cave’s first post-student creations whilst also exploring his roles as an activist and community builder.

Highlights of the exhibition include “never-before-seen works, including a continuation of the artist’s popular Soundsuits series with the premiere of Soundsuits 9:29 and a mesmerizing, site-specific installation, Spinner Forest, comprised of thousands of kinetic spinners that will hang in the museum’s two-story atrium and fourth-floor lobby.”

Where: The Museum of Contemporary Art
Dates: May 14 – October 2, 2022
Website/Tickets: mcachicago.org/nick-cave-forothermore

5. Cézanne

Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibition on Paul Cézanne is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States in more than 25 years and the first exhibition on Cezanne at the institute in more than 70 years. The French artist and Post-Impressionist painter inspired a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century with artists like Matisse and Picasso considering Cézanne “the greatest of us all”.

This groundbreaking retrospective running from mid-May through to September sheds new light not only on how Paul Cézanne created his works but also on why his art remains so vital today. Planned in coordination with Tate Modern, this exhibition features over 80 oil paintings, 40 watercolors and drawings, and two complete sketchbooks including famous works, little-known early allegorical paintings, and rarely seen compositions from public and private collections in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

You can read more about it here.

Where: The Art Institute of Chicago
Dates: May 15 – September 5, 2022
Website/Tickets: artic.edu/exhibitions/cezanne

6. The Art of the Brick

Despite its notoriety as a creative element, LEGO is one of the last things that you’d expect a critical acclaimed global touring exhibition to involve. But now, thanks to lawyer turned award-winning artist, Nathan Sawaya, guests can enjoy some of the world’s most famous works of art reproduced using thousands of those world-famous tiny bricks.

Sawaya’s globe-trotting exhibition ‘The Art of the Brick‘, currently on show at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, features over 100 sculptures made out of nothing but LEGO pieces. As well as re-imagined versions of famous masterpieces like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and Grant Wood’s American Gothic, there are large-scale sculptures of a 20-foot-long Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, a life-sized sculpture of a man pulling his chest apart, and many more meticulously constructed creations.

You can read more about it here.

Where: The Museum of Science and Industry
Dates: Happening now – September 5, 2022
Website/Tickets: msichicago.org/the-art-of-the-brick/.

7. Jurassic Oceans: Monsters Of The Deep

The latest exhibition at Chicago’s prestigious Field Museum will delight local dinosaur fans and aspiring paleontologists. Opened on Friday, February 25th, ‘Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep’ takes visitors on an underwater journey where they can encounter some of the most fascinating, fierce, and strange creatures that dominated Earth’s Jurassic seas while dinosaurs ruled the land.

It features over 100 fossils ranging from enormous marine reptiles to small, stranger creatures as well as huge replicas and CGI projections that offer visitors the chance to come face-to-face with some of history’s most terrifying marine predators to have ever existed. These include a true-to-life replica of a speedy reptile called an ichthyosaur, the skeleton of a long-necked plesiosaur, and a gigantic fossilized tail of one of a leedsichthys – one of the biggest fish ever discovered.

Produced and curated by London’s Natural History Museum, “the public will be able to touch real fossils of shelled creatures from the Jurassic, feel the textures of replicated sea creature skins, and explore the features of marine reptiles on interactive touchscreens” according to the official Field Museum release.

You can read more about it here.

Where: Field Museum
Dates: Happening now – September 5, 2022
Website/Tickets: the official Field Museum release

8. Ice Age Giants

Brookfield Zoo has launched an exciting new exhibition offering guests the chance to travel back 20,000 years to the last major ice age and hang out with the enormous megafauna that roamed the earth in its most glacial days.

Taking place zoo-wide through Sunday, October 30, 2022, ‘Ice Age Giants’ features over 30 life-sized animatronic recreations of the gigantic animals that existed in North America and Eurasia during the last major ice age, which peaked about 20,000 years ago.

Many parts of the animals will move as they did in real life, including the head, eyes, mouth, and tail, offering guests an exciting time warp like no other in the Midwest. The creator behind the thrilling new exhibit, Don Lessem, CEO of Dino Don, Inc., has been digging, reconstructing, researching, and robotizing dinosaurs and other creatures from the past for 30 years and has now brought them to life across the 216-acre park.

You can read more about it here

Where: Brookfield Zoo
Dates: Happening now – October 30
Website/Tickets: czs.org/iceagegiants

9. Claude Monet: The Immersive Experience

After successful exhibits in London, Barcelona, and a number of other cities around the world, the time has finally come for the spectacular Claude Monet: The Immersive Experienceto make its way to the states. The multisensory journey through these famous bodies of work is an entirely new way of experiencing art, bringing every stunning detail to life like never before.

Using technology to recreate animated displays of these masterpieces you’ll be immersed directly into the paintings themselves, making you feel as if you’ve stepped into one of his works, like his most famous paintings, “Water Lilies” or “Springtime.” These incredible images will be taking over a secret location in Chicago with a specific venue and dates for 2022 to be announced soon.

You can read more about it here.

Where: TBC
Dates: TBC
Website/Tickets: feverup.com/m/98166

10. Museum of Ice Cream

The Museum of Ice Cream, a fabulous wonderland for all things colorful, has announced that it will soon be opening a fourth location in none other than Chicago, Illinois. The exciting new museum will feature 14 magical and interactive installations reimagined just for the Windy City.

Described on the Museum of Ice Cream website as “a Willy Wonka factory come to life that you won’t want to leave”,  the new Michigan Avenue location will span over 13,500 square feet of The Shops of Tribune Tower where the Chicago Tribune formerly resided.

Guests will be invited on 60 to 90-minute tours through the many ice cream-themed features with breaks to sample various sweet treats between enjoying the installations.

You can read more about it here.

Where: Museum of Ice Cream
Dates: Permanent Exhibit
Website/Tickets: museumoficecream.com

Honorary mention: The Willis Tower Skydeck Interactive Museum

Willis Tower’s famed Skydeck has long been an essential Chicago bucket list experience for visiting tourists and seasoned locals alike. After undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation last year the iconic experience now offers even more reason to head up to the Skydeck whether you’ve been before or not.

The 45,000-square-foot space is, according to the Skydeck general manager Randy Stancik, now “part Chicago museum, part selfie museum, part architectural river tour, and part children’s museum.” The experience combines lighting, sound, and visuals effects to offer a journey through Chicago’s history. Guests will find information about the city’s formative years and key events in the “Origins” section before entering the “Architecture” section, the “Taste of Chicago” section, and more. There is even a life-size “L” train car that takes visitors on a simulated journey through Chicago, and then, of course, the revamped observation deck itself.

Where: Floor 103 of the Willis Tower
Dates: Permanent Exhibit
Website/Tickets: theskydeck.com

[Featured image from Shutterstock]