Top Ten of 2011

8. Chicago Urban Art Society and “The Chicago Street Art Show”

While the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art was breaking their attendance records with the street art exhibition “Art in the Streets,” Chicago’s institutions remained completely indifferent to street art – all the institutions except the Chicago Urban Art Society (CUAS), another vital non-profit in Chicago.  Responding to Chicago’s rich street art scene they hosted an exhibition featuring active participants. The transition to the gallery proved challenging for some artists, but that only made the show more compelling, more necessary, so these artists could have a chance to work in a different direction. (Full disclosure- after the exhibition closed I wrote an essay for a publication related to the exhibition.)  CUAS has also hosted a number of other notable exhibitions this year including a survey of artists working with wood, and a solo exhibition from the Post Family, which Steve Ruiz preemptively nominated in July for “best presented exhibition in Chicago this year.”

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