Peer Review ::
Center Stage
OCTOBER–NOVEMBER 06
Avery Preesman
Through October 29. Renaissance Society, 773/702-8670. The first
Midwest exhibition of work by Dutch abstract artist Avery Preesman includes
paintings, photographs, and two works-in-progress. After layering color
upon color, Preesman constructs his paintings by chiseling designs into
the base coat to produce striated fields. He will be in residence at the
Renaissance Society for one month, creating a large floor piece and a plaster
relief to extend across eight gallery windows.
Courtesy
the Smart Museum
Adrian Piper: The Mythic Being
Through December 10. Smart Museum, 773/702-0200. In 1973 conceptual
artist Adrian Piper, a woman of mixed black-white racial heritage, created
an alternate persona called the Mythic Being. Donning an Afro wig, sunglasses,
and a mustache, she documented how she and others responded to the character.
The exhibition, which includes work from the Adrian Piper Research Archive
and Smart Museum holdings, chronicles the project, including never-before-seen
footage of the Being.
Without Nature: A New Condition for Theology
October 26–28. The Martin Marty Center, 773/702-7049. This
conference explores humans’ modern estrangement from nature as a
result of the technological revolution, as well as Christian theology’s
role in understanding that loss. The event is free and open to the public.
The Florestan Trio
October 27. 8 p.m. Mandel Hall. 773/702-8068. In this University
of Chicago Presents performance, the Florestan Trio, a chamber-music group
consisting of violinist Anthony Marwood, cellist Richard Lester, and pianist
Susan Tomes, plays works by Mozart, Saint-Saens, and Shostakovich.
The Graveyard Shift
October 28–29. Graham School of General
Studies, 773/702-8821. Visitors tour the graves of Chicago musicians
such as Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, Big Walter Horton, and Dinah Washington
on a two-day excursion to famous South Side cemeteries. Led by musicology
professor and local musician David Ramey, participants check out the
musical souls’ old haunts and receive free admission to a Saturday
evening jazz and blues concert. The event costs $100 per person; call
ahead to register.
Harmonies for the Queen of Heavens
November 10. 8 p.m. Rockefeller Memorial Chapel,
773/702-7059. The Schola Antiqua of Chicago presents Renaissance composer
Guillaume Du Fay’s last polyphonic mass and his 1463 motet “Ave Regina Celorum.” Mass
movements will be interspersed with plainchant, traditional liturgical
songs.
Poem Present Series: Reading and Lecture by Lisa Robertson
November 16.
5:30 p.m. Rosenwald 405, 773/834-8524. Canadian
poet Lisa Robertson, recently featured in literary journal Chicago
Review (see “Chicago Journal,” page 19), will read from
her work. A lecture follows November 17 at 1 p.m. in Classics 101. The
Holloway poet-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley, this
fall, Robertson is best known for The Weather, a 2001 poetry collection
divided into seven sections (“Sunday” to “Saturday”)
and based on British weather forecasts.