Peer Review ::

Center Stage

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.

Hotel Cassiopeia
November 12–December 10. Court Theatre, 773/753-4472. American artist Joseph Cornell was known for creating miniature boxes with intricately arranged mirrors, cardboard bird cutouts, branches, and metal hoops. Hotel Cassiopeia, written by Charles Mee, highlights Cornell’s fascination with Manhattan, where he found inspiration in movies, overheard conversations, and busy streets.

The Role of a Theater Artist on the World Stage
November 20. 7 p.m. CourtTheatre, 773/702-8080. The 2006–07 University of Chicago Presidential Fellows in the Arts series continues with a presentation by Anne Bogart, artistic director and cofounder of New York City’s SITI Company theater ensemble. Cost is $15, $5 for University students with ID.

First Friday Lecture: “Proust on Sleep”
December 1. 12:15 p.m. Chicago Cultural Center, 773/834-0158. Graham School of General Studies instructor Joel Rich, AM’65, explores Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, focusing on Proust’s use of sleep and dreams to illustrate how such experiences affect ordinary waking life. The event is free and open to the public.

Handel’s Messiah
December 1. 8 p.m. Rockefeller Chapel, 773/702-9075. Conductor James Kallembach leads the University Chorus, Motet Choir, and Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Orchestra in this performance of Handel’s most famous work. Cost: $30 for adults, $10 for students.

Chicago Business Forecast 2007
December 6. 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Hyatt Regency Chicago, 773/702-6907. In its fifth decade, the annual GSB Business Forecast Luncheon brings together Chicago economic prognosticators Austan D. Goolsbee, Michael L. Mussa, AM’70, PhD’74, and Marvin Zonis with moderator and GSB Dean Edward A. Snyder, AM’78, PhD’84. General admission is $100, GSB alumni $90.

A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas
December 14. 7:30 p.m. Ford’s Theatre, Washington, DC. Join the Washington, DC, alumni club at Ford’s Theatre for a performance of Charles Dickens’s classic fable about an old miser who gets a second chance at happiness. RSVP to Laura Donovan, AB’93, by November 15 at LDonovan@alumni.uchicago.edu. Center orchestra seats are $45; balcony seats are $31 each.

Robert Heinecken: Magazines
December 16–March 11. Smart Museum of Art, 773/702-0200. This exhibition presents an array of American artist Heinecken’s reconfigured media images from the past four decades, works confronting the Vietnam War, American consumption, and ideals of beauty. Dubbed a “photographist” by art critic Arthur Danto, Heinecken manipulates magazine images and media photographs in the darkroom to create provocative pieces that question and reveal society’s flaws.