January Artist News
published: Jan. 8, 2026
Image from Untitled Theatre Company No. 61 and Yaka Arts Group: The Left Hand of Darkness premiering at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.
Sight of Resistance at Center for Native Futures
On view now through February 28, Sight of Resistance is a group exhibition at the Center for Native Futures featuring work by Andrea Carlson, Debra Yepa Pappan, and Monica Rickert-Bolter.
Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago at Intuit Art Museum
On view now through March 22, the exhibition Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago at the Intuit Art Museum features work by Pooja Pittie. The exhibition focuses on “the importance of immigration and migration in the genre of self-taught art…underscoring the creative contributions of migrants and immigrants, broadening the scope to include artists deserving of greater attention, while posing questions about access to the art world…”
The New Stages Festival at the Goodman Theatre
From January 11-18, The New Stages Festival is an annual celebration of innovative, risky new drama showcases. FEAST!\ directed by Calamity West is a “darkly comic pressure cooker about privilege and power.”
On January 13, artists Sharkey Zalek and Aurora Tabar lead SWARM, a collaborative sound and movement lab. “Rather than working towards a performance or final outcome, we play for the sake of playing, move for the sake of moving, and create in the space together.” Each session includes a guided warm up, loose score for movement/sound improvisation, and time to discuss and reflect. Movers and musicians of all styles, backgrounds, and levels of experience are welcome to participate.
2nd Annual Black History Festival of the Arts: Rephrasis en Noir at Zhou B Art Center
On January 16 (and on view through March 15), Coco Elysses performs, and Renee Baker, Jennifer Hodges, Candace Hunter, Dorian Sylvain, Norman Teague, Sadie Woods, and Arthur Wright exhibit work in the 2nd Annual Black History Festival of the Arts Rephrasis en Noir at Zhou B Art Center."Rephrasis en Noir brings the written brilliance of Black literature into visual form—an act of translation, homage, and expansion. This exhibition explores how artists draw upon the literary canon that has long examined, interpreted, and fortified Black culture.”
Harris Theater Presents: Kids Meet the Music at Harris Theater
On January 17, Caitlin Edwards and Khelsey Zarraga play with the D-Composed String Ensemble and Josh Jones “for engaging explorations of the music of Black composers for kids and their families.”
Waste NOT! at HIVE Center for Book Arts
On January 21, 28, and February 4, Regin Igloria leads Waste NOT!, a workshop on using repurposed and recycled materials to learn variations on bookbinding and stitching. “Beginning with pamphlets and saddle stitching to the buttonhole and longstitch, this course allows students to explore non-traditional materials to develop a variety of approaches to making books, with a budget-oriented and anti-capitalist mindset.”
“The Seed” Movement and Music Series at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago
On January 25, Carole McCurdy and Dushun Mosely perform in “The Seed” Movement and Music Series.
The Left Hand of Darkness at Northwestern University's Wirtz Center Chicago Abbott Hall
On January 29, 30, 31 and February 1, experience this world premiere based on the 1969 novel by famed sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin, wherein a lone human emissary to an alien world tries to facilitate inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. To do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the newly encountered, completely dissimilar culture whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. Presented as part of the Chicago International Puppet Festival, Tom Lee leads puppetry and is the co-director of this piece featuring Chih-Jou Cheng.
Freedom From and Freedom To at Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series
On January 30 & 31, movement and sound improvisors from all around Chicago will gather in front of a live audience and are grouped by chance in this exploration and celebration of artistic circumstance. Each performance features a different group of performers who fuse diverse artistic practices to create unique and fleeting worlds. This unique program will be different each night including founder Cristal Sabbagh, and artists Tuli Bera, Caroline Jesalva, Sharkey Zalek and Aaliyah Christina.