21c MUSEUM HOTEL CHICAGO

The Art of Now

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A reset in cultural engagement, 21c Chicago's museum hotel offers extraordinary art from world-renowned contemporary artists, free and open to the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Let curiosity take the lead and discover a beautifully curated experience with every stay.

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Current Exhibitions

OFF-SPRING

Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites brings OFF-SPRING: New Generations to 21c Chicago. This thematic group exhibition of 100 multi-media artworks by 60 artists from across the globe highlighting how religious, cultural, familial, and personal rituals shape who we are and how and where we live, love, and learn.

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Weems, Kjartansson, Ellsworth |OFF-SPRING
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Rm. 921: Reflections on Practice

On view, from October through December is Reflections on Practice, an exhibition featuring films and video work from Kioto Aoki, Lois Bielefeld, and Yuge Zhou for Elevate: Rm 921. Projected onto a 48-foot wall, the exhibition is only viewable after dusk and from the windows of 21c Chicago guest rooms with interior-facing windows. Designed to showcase immersive and experiential moving-image work in response to the unique space, Elevate: Rm 921 addresses complex issues that shape our diverse and rapidly changing world.

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Bryana Bibbs Unforeseen

 

Unforeseen, a solo exhibition by Bryana Bibbs of select Journal Series weavings from Winter 2023. As a part of the Elevate series at 21c Chicago, the work will be on view from August through October in Gallery 3.

The journals were made one month before her grandfather (Papa George) passed on December 18, 2023. Along with her mom, Bibbs stayed at her grandparents' home to assist her Papa George, hoping he would get better. Unable to create new materials, Bibb journaled using found objects from her grandparents' backyard, her Mema's pantry, her Mema's sewing tins, and hand-spun wool that Bibbs had previously made. 

Elevate at 21c presents temporary exhibitions of works by artists living and working in the communities surrounding each 21c Museum Hotel. Elevate provides hotel guests and visitors with unique access to the work of notable regional artists, while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s contemporary art space.

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Horsepower 2023

Natalie Clare is a Chicago-based painter who practices her craft as (sub)urban warrior, creating murals in public and private spaces in cities across the U.S. Describing the inspiration behind the work she painted at 21c Chicago, the artist says: “Horsepower is a mural depicting horses in a slightly abstracted way. Horses are powerful animals at the peak of athleticism and strength in the animal kingdom. The animal/human connection is very strong and nature also produces endorphins, as does physical activity. The crossover is cerebral and meant to brighten the space and bring that same feeling that interacting with nature and animals does in an urban environment removed from those things.” Learn more here.

Current Exhibition

Wallworks by Nick Cave and Bob Faust

As a way to bring the energy and impetus of Nick Cave’s artwork outside of traditional museum walls, Cave, in collaboration with his design partner Bob Faust, have created nine unique patterns that pair in various ways to result in sixteen floors of Wallworks, installed in the elevator lobbies on floors 2-17.

FEATURED ARTISTS
natalie claire

Natalie Clare

(sub)urban warrior is an artist working out of the burbs who has an urban vibe to her work. She is influenced greatly by street art as well as by fine art, and she blends the two genres together, paying homage to each of them in her own way. Her creations have been described as “National Geographic meets Disney,” a description she is glad to embrace. She uses her fine-art background and skill set to create her own set of characters, combining different animal and human anatomies together into new creatures she calls beasties. These beasties are nomadic and ancient beings who navigate cities, mountains, and plains, sharing wisdom and spreading beauty.

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Bob Faust

Bob Faust is the principal and creative director for Faust, a cultural branding and communications studio operating at the intersection of art and design that results in absorptive visual experiences based in Chicago. 

Photo by Sandro

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Nick Cave

Nick Cave is an artist, educator and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance.

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