Kerry Cardoza

1 week ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

Reader Bites celebrates dishes, drinks, and atmospheres from the Chicagoland food scene. Have you had a recent food or drink experience that you can’t stop thinking about? Share it with us at [email protected]. McKinley Park’s Cadinho Bakery & Cafe is inspired by the culinary delights of Portugal. But the idea for its mouthwatering bombón espresso drink—technically of Spanish origin—actually came from a visit that proprietor Alejandra Rivera made to her hometown of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

1 week ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

Kelly Xi became an artist by chance. As an undergraduate, her focus was initially on molecular biology. But a scheduling conflict landed her in a Photoshop class instead of the molecular genetics class she’d intended to take, and her life course was forever changed. “From that first interface I was like, ‘Oh I could do this,’” Xi said.

1 month ago | chicagoreader.com | Kerry Cardoza

My tenure in Chicago dates back almost precisely to EXPO Chicago’s launch in 2012. While I haven’t had the privilege of attending every year, I have caught quite a few, and without fail, my favorite presentations are always from local institutions. There was Paige Taul’s indelible short film 7-7-94 For my babe, shown at Chicago Artists Coalition’s booth in 2022. That same year, everyone was buzzing about local artist Soumya Netrabile’s rich, kinetic paintings presented by Andrew Rafacz.

1 month 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 months 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.