An unusual number of firsts are taking place in Chicago museums this summer, from older artists getting their due to under-examined histories being recovered to emergent talents making their local debuts.
“Chryssa & New York”: The mononymous Athens-born artist, a sensation in the 1960s for her experiments with neon, commercial signage and industrial materials, gets art-historically resuscitated with her first major American exhibit since 1982. Featuring 62 sculptures that dismantle language and presage the innovations of Minimalism and Pop Art, jointly organized by the Dia Art Foundation and the Menil Collection. Through July 27 at Wrightwood 659, 659 W. Wrightwood Ave., 773-437-6601 and wrightwood659.org
“Christina Ramberg: A Retrospective”: Some of the kinkiest, funniest artworks made in Chicago in the 1970s were Ramberg’s fastidiously painted female body parts, from tightly coiffed heads to lacily corseted torsos. Less well-known are her experimental quilts of the ’80s and the dark geometries produced before her untimely death at the age of 49. All of it, plus personal archives, is included in the first comprehensive exhibit of her oeuvre in 30 years. Through Aug. 11 at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., 312-443-3600 and artic.edu
“Opening Passages: Photographers Respond to Chicago and Paris”: Dynamic social landscapes are the chosen subject for the 10 artists — five American, five French — in this multisite exhibit. Highlights include Sasha Phyars-Burgess’s efforts to teach traditional darkroom techniques to residents in Clichy-sous-Bois, Marzena Abrahamik’s chronicling of Polish-Chicago migration in reverse, and Rebecca Topakian’s research into the rose-ringed parakeets that entered France via an airport cargo accident. Through Aug. 25 at the Chicago Cultural Center and other venues; more information at artdesignchicago.org
“Nicole Eisenman: What Happened”: There’s no question mark in the title of this first major survey of one of the most celebrated figurative painters of the past two decades; her compositions are statements, not queries. More than 100 large and small canvases, plus a few oddball sculptures, reveal her anarchically wry take on people and the way we live today. Through September 22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., 312-280-2660 and visit.mcachicago.org
“What Is Seen and Unseen”: Guest curator Shelly Bahl traces the under-documented history of South Asian American art in Chicago, from the Indian Pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition; to the rising interest in Asian antiquities during the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s; to contemporary artists practicing in the city today, including Brendan Fernandes, Kushala Vora and Sayera Anwar. Through October 26 at the South Asia Institute, 1925 S. Michigan Ave., 312-929-3911, saichicago.org
“The United Colors of Robert Earl Paige”: The 87-year-old Woodlawn resident gets his largest exhibition to date, full of recent clay sculptures, cardboard collages, an exuberant mural, and decades of iconic fabric designs, merging Bauhaus modernism with West African symbology and Chicago jazz. “Parapluie,” an ancillary exhibit, includes the work of Paige’s “umbrella,” a group of makers who create in sync with his own love for pattern, color and purpose. Through Oct. 27 at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave., 773-324-5520 and hydeparkart.org
“Georgia O’Keeffe: ‘My New Yorks’”: Before she became famous for her flowers and Southwestern landscapes, O’Keeffe lived on the 30th floor of an apartment building in midtown Manhattan. From there, she began a series of mesmerizingly modern paintings of skyscrapers, the smokestacks along the East River, and other keenly felt urban sights. “My New Yorks,” as she called them, are here seriously examined for the first time, amid her abstractions and still lifes of the 1920s and early ’30s. June 2 to Sept. 22 at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., 312-443-3600 and artic.edu
“Art on the Mart: Cory Arcangel and Yinka Illori”: Arcangel came to fame 20-odd years ago for his irreverent re-coding of the Super Mario Brothers video game, eliminating all elements except the clouds. Illori runs a studio designing exuberant graphics, products and spaces for clients ranging from the county of Kent to Courvoisier VSOP. Whatever these two artists do in their newly commissioned videos will be colorful, clever, free to watch, and very, very big, broadcast nightly across the 2.5-acre façade of the Merchandise Mart, one of the world’s largest digital art canvases. June 6 to Sept. 11 at Art on the Mart, best viewed from the Riverwalk on Wacker Drive between Wells Street and Franklin Street; more information at artonthemart.com
“Teresa Baker: Shift in the Clouds”: Truly contemporary painting looks something like what Baker does on large, shaped pieces of colored Astroturf, embellishing them with yarn, buffalo hide, artificial sinew, corn husk and other materials. Evoked are maps and shadows, the Northern Plains where she was raised, the Los Angeles where she currently lives, her Mandan/Hidatsa culture, and so much more both real and impossible. June 26 through August 16 at the Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario St., 312-787-3997 and artsclubchicago.org
“vanessa german”: The self-proclaimed citizen artist has been in residence at the University of Chicago since January, working with local communities and their objects to fashion a new series of “power figures,” sculptures that align Black power, spirituality, mysticism and feminism in ways as clever and tender as they are comedic and bold. They’ll debut in her sermonically titled solo show, “At the end of this reality there is a bridge — the bridge is inside of you but not inside of your body. Take this bridge to get to the next ______, all of your friends are there; death is not real and we are all dj’s.” July 19 through December 15 at the Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St., 773-834-8377 and loganexhibitions.uchicago.edu