Join us for Naoko Ogigami’s gorgeous slice of life film Kamome Diner (2006), where a newly immigrated Japanese woman opens an onigiri shop in Helsinki.

Peak Japanede “slow” cinema blooms into focus through the beauty and routine of sincere hospitality. To get you in the relaxing mood, come for a pre-show yoga by Wendy Wei with live ambiant music by Laurentse.

Doors 7 pm

Show: 8 pm

New open hours are starting every Wednesday, 12-6pm!

Stop by to view our two exhibitions 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘌𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵: 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 curated by @ne2_gallerysquared and 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥í 𝘢 𝘚𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳 curated by @ladancynancy @nicholaszepeda and @secondfloorgallery

Share your roots in our flex community space with @ne2_gallerysquared interactive wall piece!

In need of some anarchist literature? Check out our 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 located at our stage area.

And while you’re here, grab a complimentary cup of coffee provided by @lamalinchecoffeeandtea. Thank you Hector for the fresh brew!

Every Wednesday — See you here✨

Summer is here, and so is the beautiful game’s tournament in North America. While the world’s biggest football event is gearing up to take center stage, Chicago Art Department (CAD) is keeping its eyes on something equally important: supporting artists who make our local community thrive.

So if you’re feeling skeptical about grand promises of global unity and social impact, we’ve got a more tangible way to make a difference.

Join CAD for The People’s Cup: Futbolito for the Arts, on Saturday, July 18, 1-4pm, a foosball tournament and fundraiser celebrating art and community with a little friendly competition.

On the eve of the 2026 World Cup, we’re bringing people together for an afternoon of foosball, art-making, foods, drinks, and fun–all in support of CAD and its mission.

Whether you’re a seasoned table-football champion or simply want to support CAD and our social impact, there’s something for everyone:

• Foosball open play

• Hand-on art-making workshops

• Food and drinks

• All ages-fun

• Raffle prizes courtesy of the Chicago Fire FC and Chicago Stars FC

Tickets

• $20 Adults

• $10 Youth (under 18)

• Youth must be accompanied by an adult 21 or over

• Purchase tickets here

Location: Chicago Art Department, 1926 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL 60608
Date and time: Saturday, July 18, 2026, 1-4pm

All proceeds directly support CAD’s mission to champion local artists.

Want to take your support a step further? We’re seeking more organizational sponsors and community partners. We’d love to hear from you.

Tickets are on sale now. Grab yours, bring your team, and help us prove that supporting local artists is always a winning game.

Beau Travail (1999) is a hypnotic, sensual masterpiece from visionary director Claire Denis, loosely based on Herman Melville's Billy Budd, about a French Foreign Legion sergeant in Djibouti whose excessive jealousy of a new recruit threatens to consume him.

Come for the themes of toxic masculinity, repressed desire and colonialism, and stay for the unlimited popcorn and mint tea.
Our final film in our TOXIC WORKPLACES series at Chicago Art Raffle.

Doors: 7 pm
Show: 8pm
Mystery dessert included

Come out to Steelworkers Park this weekend to meet local artists and journalists and pick up a free quantum computing campus zine and our July print issue! 📰

We'll also be creating a collective artwork with artist Miguel Limón (@mgllmn), and participants can bring objects from home that represent experiences of migration, labor, or displacement to be printed alongside archival photographs of southeast side Mexican steelworker communities.

This community art-making event is part of the Chicago Art Department's Contra Corriente Art Festival, which highlights the work of artists and activists dedicated to racial and environmental justice on the southwest side of Chicago and beyond.

New open hours are starting every Wednesday, 12-6pm!

Stop by to view our two exhibitions 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘌𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵: 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 curated by @ne2_gallerysquared and 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥í 𝘢 𝘚𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳 curated by @ladancynancy @nicholaszepeda and @secondfloorgallery

Share your roots in our flex community space with @ne2_gallerysquared interactive wall piece!

In need of some anarchist literature? Check out our 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 located at our stage area.

And while you’re here, grab a complimentary cup of coffee provided by @lamalinchecoffeeandtea. Thank you Hector for the fresh brew!

Every Wednesday — See you here✨

New open hours are starting every Wednesday, 12-6pm!

Stop by to view our two exhibitions 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘌𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵: 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 curated by @ne2_gallerysquared and 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥í 𝘢 𝘚𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳 curated by @ladancynancy @nicholaszepeda and @secondfloorgallery

Share your roots in our flex community space with @ne2_gallerysquared interactive wall piece!

In need of some anarchist literature? Check out our 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 located at our stage area.

And while you’re here, grab a complimentary cup of coffee provided by @lamalinchecoffeeandtea. Thank you Hector for the fresh brew!

Every Wednesday — See you here✨

Tori and Lokita (2022) is a Belgium social realist drama that follows two West African children in their quest to get asylum. The pair face intense jobs and exploitation of all shapes and sizes, all in a system set to see them fail. Chosen family keeps this Dardenne Brothers' film afloat with love and resistance tearing at the limits of how far we'll go to protect the ones we love. One of our all time favorites in the TOXIC WORKPLACES series!

Also, we'll be celebrating Eli's 32nd birthday with a potluck! Please come a bit early and come hungry! All are welcome.

Doors open at 7 pm
Potluck at 7:30 pm
Movie starts at 8 pm

Chris Oquist is a Chicago-based composer and multi-instrumentalist born in Puerto Rico to a Colombian mother and a Swedish-Greek-American father.

His music explores reflection, disintegration, and transformation: the ways that time quietly reshapes what we thought was fixed. He works at the intersection of experimental electronic music, classical composition, and sound art.

A defining thread in his practice is the question of imperceptible change: how something - a sound, a relationship, a climate - can drift so slowly that no single moment feels decisive, until it has crossed a threshold into something unrecognizable.

Derivas Liminares moves through that territory in real time.

For this performance, Oquist draws on publicly available atmospheric temperature datasets as compositional raw material, not to illustrate data, but to let its shape inform the arc of the music.

Running through it is a question about how we process loss: the particular grief of watching something cross a point of no return, accumulating slowly, named only in retrospect.

The performance is followed by a short artist talk and audience Q&A: Oquist will share how climate datasets became compositional decisions, and open the floor for conversation about what it means to listen to the climate rather than simply measure it.

Pulp. Rice. Neorealism. Directed by Giuseppe De Santis (1949) and starring Silvana Mangano, Bitter Rice takes you to planting season in Northern Italy’s Po Valley where a community of all-female rice farm workers endure brutal field conditions and unfair pay. The story flies when a pair of fugitive jewel thieves hide among the rice fields to cool off a simmering heist, only to find themselves caught in a love triangle full of sex, drama and passion.

Part of our ongoing series TOXIC WORKPLACES: movies about labor and exploitation. Come for the free loyalty card and bottomless 🍿!

Doors: 7 pm
Show: 8 pm
📍1926 S. Halsted, Pilsen @chicagoartdept

Hello lovely people!

Aprendí a Sembrar is coming up next Friday June 12, 2026 from 6pm-9pm. Best believe it’s going to be absolutely amazing! We have a dj set from DJ Colacha and a live band pulling up at the last hour of the exhibition. Bring your cowboy boots and chaps! Vamos a bailar cumbia y salsa! Come early to dance to @ocelomaitl beats, enjoy Contra La Corrientes programming for an hour and stick around for the banda.

Is there an after party? Hmu if you already have an event planned and we’ll head over there cause this show is full of party girls and party theys✨come thru and celebrate with some Chicago baddies 😈😈 Special thanks to @cielosollindo for providing image of their work ✨

We are excited to announce the second exhibition of this year’s Contra Corriente Festival at Chicago Art Department.

“The Butterfly Effect: Bridging Borders” brings together artists sharing personal and communal stories of immigration, environmental displacement, and loss of land. The exhibition reflects on the ways people adapt, survive, and remain connected across borders and generations.

Opening Friday, June 12
6–9pm
On display through July 25
1926 S Halsted, Chicago

Exhibiting Artists:
Aileen Nicole Castro @a.c_inkdesigns
Akira - Light that Heals @akira_lightthatheals
Alejandra Lemus @alelemus.g
Alex Covarrubias - Red Cave redcavee.com
Anna Silvonchik facebook: anna.silivonchik
Bane.xxa bane.xxa
Christian Joshua Varela Solis @christian_varela___
Cindy Uriostegui - Cattco @catt.co_
Cristina Marquez @tinaworrierprincess
Elena Pach @elenapach_art
Elena Diadenko @diadenko_elena
EMNI @emni_arte
Gabriel Guzman @duckiegabe
Grecia Soloria @gsolorioart
Idil Duman @niduman
Isaac Galvan @arte.galvan
Arte Duran @arte_duran_charicata
Kaltra @kaltra
Kybo@brekkie.rice
Mariana Perez @katallages
Mary Antar
Pauline Ruiz @peauxline
raqui @natural_brutalism
Riesling Dong @riesling_dong
Rocio “Chio” Cabrera-Coz @chiocabreracoz
Sailee Charlu @sailee.charlu
Shalala Salamzadeh @salamzadeh.art
Stef Skills @stefskills
Victoria Park @beautyvictoriapaint
– and others

Curation Team:
Maria Teresa Requena Mar @maria_requena95
Sofia Brunwin @fiasunn
Maribel Maribel Cruz Perez @neospideysense
Pam Pamela Ruby Trejo Soria @pam.dsign
Angelica Garcia @poisonivy.luv
Allison Hill a_philharmonic
Tracy Kostenbader @tracykostenbader

Organizations:
Butterfly Effect Project
butterflyefffect.anysquared.org
@the__butterflyeffect_project

AnySquared
anysquared.org
@ne2_gallerysquared

Join us for our official launch party, in depth, in partnership with Chicago Art Department (@chicagoartdept).

a night of Hip-Hop, R&B, and authentic connection featuring, DJ Kulit (@Geronimo.mp4), Manah (@manah______) + friends (@hunniebee_sweet) (@ekoliii), and Shaundric (@shaundric) — RSVP in bio.

📁 When:
Friday, May 29th
6-10 PM

📎 What:
a listening party social designed to celebrate artists and authentic connection, within safe space.

🍵 Menu:
hibiscus tea, matcha lattes, and your choice of iced or hot lattes — provided by Ruby Fine Hibiscus Tea (@experienceruby) and Cafe Symphani by Cherish (@cherishsymphani)

The closing reception for portfolio spotlight 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 will be this Saturday

5-7pm! Would love to see you there :-)

Lots of love to the CAD crew and everyone who’s stopped by to see the show at @chicagoartdept. More to come!

What You Change, Changes You approaches art making as a collaborative and social practice. The exhibition brings together Praxis, a collective of eleven women artists formed in 2019 whose resistance to singular medium, style, or category is itself a position. Spanning fiber, ceramics, performance, collage, and beyond, they join a long lineage of women who have challenged the formal frameworks that have both defined and limited the canon. 

The artists in this exhibition restore through mending, reclaim through melting down and reshaping, and rebelliously preserve histories that have always existed at the margins. The meaning-rich processes and storied materials each engage with and contribute to the ethos of the artist as both record keeper and context shifter. 

By working with their families, partners, and communities, the larger ecosystem of each comes together and is changed by their experiences, cumulatively resulting in an ever-evolving process of regeneration and change. 

Curator @mkennedystudios

*Participating Artists*

Lois Bielefeld @loisbielefeld

Holly Cahill @hollyacahill

Vannessa Filley @vanessafilley

Tanya Gill @tlh.gill.studio

Rita Grendze @ritagrendze

Tulika Ladsariya @tulikaartist

Katherine Lampert @katherinelampert

Jill Lanza @jilllanza

Jennifer Mannebach @mannebach_art

Yoonshin Park @yoonshin_park

*Important Dates*

Opening reception: April 10th 6-9pm

Exhibition Runs: Apr 10- May 29

Artist Panel Friday May 8th 6-8pm

Collage Workshop Thursday, May 21 4-6pm

Join us for our next co-work session in partnership with Chicago Art Department (@chicagoartdept). An afternoon of connection, recharging, and creativity — RSVP in bio!

📁 When:
Sunday, May 17th
12 - 4 PM

📎 What:
Creative co-work session where you can work on your projects and meet other creatives. please bring a creative or personal project to work on, your favorite snack, and come ready focus or mingle — water will be provided.

📓 Book swap hour:
From 2 to 3 PM, we will kickoff our book exchange for those who want to connect in depth. bring your favorite book to join our book swap!

We're back with the next film in our film series TOXIC WORKPLACES: Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène in his feature directorial debut based on his 1962 short story, which was in turn inspired by a real life incident.

Black Girl (1966) follows a young Senegalese woman who moves from her native Dakar to France, to work for a French couple.

Mati Diop's short film Atlantiques (2009) will be screened beforehand which means you can watch not one but two superb African films in Wolof next Saturday night at @chicagoartdept

Doors open: 7 pm
Screening: 8 pm
Mystery desserts and unlimited popcorn 🍿
Suggested donation: $5

And The Spaces Between explores the complexities of identity through the lens of adoptee artists, reflecting on the love, loss, and liminality that come with navigating multiple cultures, histories, and geographies. Expanding on Adopted Territory, first shown at the Chinese American Museum, this exhibition considers migration as both a physical and emotional journey, questioning what is lost, gained, remembered, and forgotten along the way. Embracing the uncertainties of identity, it invites community engagement as a means of understanding the spaces in between.

Diagrams, Systems, and Collective Power examines the ways artists, designers, and educators use diagramming as a tool to map, question, and disrupt systems of power. In a time of heightened political and social unrest, the exhibition explores how visualizing power structures can expose hierarchies, shift narratives, and offer collective strategies for resistance. Featuring CAD resident artists Oscar Solis, Eric Von Hayes, Dud Lawson, Silvia Ines Gonzalez, Fabrizzio Subia, Sarah Whyte, and others, the show presents diagrams not just as representations but as interventions—dynamic frameworks that challenge meaning, value, and history while imagining new possibilities for collective power.

Jassiel Serna - Tilichero & Artist Market (Sep 12 - Oct 27)

Tilichero is a market-style exhibition celebrating rasquache, a Chicano art aesthetic that embraces resourcefulness, defiance, and invention through simple materials. Blurring the lines between gallery and open-air market, Tilichero pays homage to the tianguis of Mexico and Latin America, creating a space for art, trade, and community. In partnership with POCAS, the event centers BIPOC vendors, artists, and musicians, fostering accessible, community-driven commerce where vendors keep 100% of their sales and all programming remains free to the public.