Kerry Cardoza

2 weeks ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

The Block Museum’s monumental “Woven Being” is expansive yet concise, not so much a group exhibition as a mapping of diverse but related Indigenous art. To put it together, four artists with connections to Chicagoland—Andrea Carlson, Kelly Church, Nora Moore Lloyd, and Jason Wesaw—worked with the museum to choose works to feature alongside their own. The result, which includes mostly but not exclusively contemporary Indigenous artists, is rich and generous with perspective.

2 weeks ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

More than a decade ago, journalist Deborah Solomon opined that there were fewer than ten full-time art critics employed in the U.S. While it’s hard to get a precise count, odds are that number is even lower now, as media outlets across the country have shed more than 20,000 jobs since then. (And, no, Chicago doesn’t have one.)Longtime art critic Mary Louise Schumacher tackles this free fall in her new documentary, Out of the Picture.

3 weeks ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

Content note: This story contains descriptions of police violence and sexual assault. In the 1970s, as today, sexual assault was among the least reported violent crime in the U.S. Marital rape was still legal (it wasn’t made a crime in all 50 states until 1993). In Chicago, when people did report a sexual assault to law enforcement, the response from police or medical examiners could be traumatizing in itself and rarely resulted in a conviction.

4 weeks ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

“This is a computer. It’s a wooden computer made of wood and metal.” I’m at the cozy home studio of artist Anders Zanichkowsky, who is explaining the complicated basics of their canopy-bed-sized, 24-harness AVL mechanical dobby production loom, on which they weave gorgeous, luxurious blankets by hand—most of which are intended for burial. Zanichkowsky launched Burial Blankets, as his business is known, in the fall of 2021. It was the perfect melding of several longtime interests.

1 month ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

An artist in paint-splattered black clothes puts the finishing touches on a busy, vibrant acrylic scene on an oversize canvas. Nearby another artist—a face mask tucked beneath her chin—leans over a comic-like illustration, carefully coloring in the black outlined drawing with green marker.