A&D Gallery
1/16–2/22 Strange Bedfellows. Artistic partnerships form the core of this group exhibition’s premise: The more people you collaborate with, the more creative and intellectual freedom you gain. 619 S Wabash. colum.edu/adgallery
Alderman Exhibitions
Through 2/16 Inside the Outside. A handful of artists make unnatural objects: fishing lures, a pine-tree air freshener, and zinc logs. Assembled, these pieces reflect America’s strange relationship with nature. 1138 W Randolph. aldermanexhibitions.com
Arcade Gallery
1/13–3/7 Discarded: The Afterlife of Everyday Electronics. This group exhibition examines the cultural and material ramifications of America’s insatiable desire for the latest technological products. 618 S Michigan. colum.edu/deps
Art on Armitage
Through 12/31 Gwendolyn Zabicki. With a fondness for stillness that would make the painter Edward Hopper proud, Zabicki captures the unexpected quiet corners of modern life with her oil works. 4125 W Armitage. artonarmitage.com
Aspect/Ratio
Through 1/25 The Dutch Don’t Dance. What does contemporary Dutch video art look like? This show answers that question with unexpectedly provocative work by Maria Pask and Hedwig Houben, who make their Chicago debuts. 119 N Peoria. aspectratioprojects.com
Firecat Projects
1/24–2/22 Tom Burtonwood and Holly Holmes lead the local artistic revolution in 3D printing with a 3D-printed book and other sculptural anomalies. 2124 N Damen. firecatprojects.org
Gallery 400
1/17–3/1 Ghost Nature. Filmmakers and visual artists team up to illustrate the capriciousness of nature. 400 S Peoria. gallery400.uic.edu
Glass Curtain Gallery
Through 1/25 Tyranny of Good Taste. Garish, gross, messy, lowbrow: 15 artists dismantle so-called good taste. 1104 S Wabash. colum.edu/deps
Kavi Gupta Gallery
Through 1/25 Curtis Mann: A Matter of Structure and Utility. The photographer known for burning bleach into his prints now turns his attention to the back of his images. Mann slices crescent shapes, folds them back, and reveals photos that look like a hundred blinking eyelids. 835 W Washington. kavigupta.com
Monique Meloche Gallery
Through 1/4 Ebony G. Patterson. Patterson’s blinged-out tapestries and paintings bring Jamaica’s dancehall music culture, especially its gender and economic inequities, to the fore.
1/11–2/1 Carrie Schneider: Reading Women. Schneider contributes to the resurgence of the Slow movement with Reading Women, a two-hour video of women doing exactly what the title of the show tells us they do. 2154 W Division. moniquemeloche.com
Peanut Gallery
1/5–2/5 Sean Hernandez: Ghost Town. Using puppet animation from cut paper, Hernandez mounts this illustrated allegory about a fictional town full of beasts and spirits. 1000 N California. peanutgallerychicago.com
Printworks
Through 1/4 Carole Harmel and Lialia Kuchma: Rewoven: Photographs, Threads, Words. Two longtime Chicago artists collaborate to make mixed photo and textile artworks. 311 W Superior. printworkschicago.com
Rhona Hoffman Gallery
1/11–2/22 Michael Rakowitz: The Breakup. Collage-maker Rakowitz uses the 1969 disbanding of the Beatles as a metaphor for Israeli and Palestinian miscommunications. 118 N Peoria. rhoffmangallery.com
Riverside Arts Center And Freeark Gallery
1/19–2/15 Judith Mullen: A Crooked Path. Nature and culture collide in Mullen’s sculptures as she mixes tree branches and bark with fabrics and Styrofoam, forming her assemblages into nest-like thickets. 32 E Quincy, Riverside. riversideartscenter.com
Rotofugi Gallery
Through 1/5 Jon MacNair. The illustrator makes exquisite ink drawings in a sinister fantasy style. 2780 N Lincoln. rotofugi.com
Russell Bowman Art Advisory
Through 1/25 Ed Paschke Drawings. Known primarily for his saturated-color paintings of faces and figures, Paschke also had a sensitive hand as a draftsman. This show focuses on the rarely seen drawings of this giant of modern Chicago art. 311 W Superior. bowmanart.com
Shane Campbell Gallery
Through 1/18 Paul Cowan. Attention, lovers of wry conceptual art: From the Martin Creed school of anxious minimalism comes Paul Cowan. It is not just for entertainment’s sake—the jokester always has a moral up his sleeve. 673 N Milwaukee. shanecampbellgallery.com
Threewalls
1/10–2/22 Faith Wilding: Fearful Symmetries Retrospective. First-wave feminist artist Faith Wilding, known for her experimental performance and installation art, gets a retrospective. 119 N Peoria. three-walls.org
Western Exhibitions
Through 1/25 Ben Stone. Like Jeff Koons, Ben Stone draws ironic humor and tension from kitsch objects. In his latest show, he turns found items like children’s bedsheets, a dog toy, and trophies into large-scale, detailed sculptures. 845 W Washington. westernexhibitions.com