The Best of the MCA in 2014: Critic’s Edition

Thu, Jan 1, 2015

Featured image

James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator Michael Darling poses with a smile in front of the title wall for "David Bowie Is". — James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator Michael Darling
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

blog intro

2014 has come to close and it’s time for some reflection on the past year, and of course, end-of-year lists. The critics and writers from Chicago and beyond have weighed in and we’re sharing their selections here, but we will also share our audience’s picks in a later post.

top moments

MICHAEL DARLING
—Chicagoan of the Year, Chicago Tribune

UNBOUND: CONTEMPORARY ART AFTER FRIDA KAHLO
—Exceptional Art Exhibitions of 2014, Chicagoist

ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE, ARGUENDO
—Christopher Borelli’s “Favorite Things of 2014,” Chicago Tribune

Images

Elevator Repair Service, *Arguendo*
Photo: Joan Marcus

Participants at Family Day, Apr 12, 2014
Photo: Joshua Longbrake, © MCA Chicago

Installation view, *Isa Genzken: Retrospective*, MCA Chicago, Apr 12–Aug 3, 2014
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Shirin Neshat, Turbulent, 1998. Black-and-white video installation. Dimensions variable. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Susan and Lewis Manilow, 2000.22 © 1998 Shirin Neshat
© MCA Chicago

MCA Talk: William Pope.L, Apr 17, 2014
Photo: Meghan Wingert, © MCA Chicago

Installation view, *William J. O’Brien*, MCA Chicago, Jan 25–May 18, 2014
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Stan Shellabarger & Dutes Miller, *Untitled (Crochet, Basel, Switzerland)*, 2008. Archival ink-jet print. Edition of 5, aside from 1 artist’s proof. 50 × 30 in. (127 × 76.2 cm) Courtesy of the artists and Western Exhibitions, Chicago

Rosas danst Rosas
Photo: Herman Sorgeloos

top moment cont’d

MCA-featured artists, exhibitions, performances, and programs all garnered notable mentions in Newcity‘s “Top 5 of Everything 2014”:

THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMORARY ART, ESPECIALLY DURING FAMILY DAY
—Top 5 Places that Aren’t Explicitly Tot-Oriented but Will in Fact Make Your Half-Pint Feel Right at Home

ISA GENZKEN: RETROSPECTIVE
—Top 5 Bricolage Exhibitions

ANNE COLLIER
—Top 5 Confrontations of the Male Gaze and Ugly Patriarchy

WU TSANG, MISHIMA IN MEXICO & SHIRIN NESHAT, TURBULENT
—Top 5 Video Artworks Shown in Major Museums

WILLIAM POPE.L
—Top 5 Gratifying Talks and Performances I Made It To

MARIA GASPAR
—Top 5 Artworks as Activism

LILLI CARRÉ, THE NEGOTIATION
—Top 5 Drawing Shows

WILLIAM J. O'BRIEN
—Top 5 Subversively Conceptual Crafters

MILLER & SHELLABARGER
—Top 5 Sweater Weather Artists

MCA STAGE
—Top 5 Dance Venues of 2014

Blog

The Best of the MCA in 2014: Blog Team Edition
By Abraham Ritchie
Tue, Jan 6, 2015
The start of a new year brings reflection on the past year and rightly so. 2014 was so packed it almost felt like two years rolled into one. The best...
1. Short Two elderly men wearing suits embrace in a kiss while two other men look on smiling and clapping.
2. Short Two elderly men wearing suits embrace in a kiss while two other men look on smiling and clapping.
3. Long This is a photograph that appears to have been taken at a wedding. Two men, around 70 years old with thin, greying hair and fair complexions, are kissing and embracing. The men are wearing identical grey suits and similarly shaped dark framed glasses. Directly behind the embracing couple a younger white man with dark hair is smiling. Next to him, a white, late-middle aged man in a formal suit and tie, is clapping and smiling. The clapping man will be identifiable to Illinois residents as Pat Quinn, former governor of Illinois. The men are embracing inside an interior lit with daylight, with white curtains pulled back as decorative accents. What appears to be a champagne glass is visible in the far right corner of the photo.
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