Dollars to doughnuts, the eateries of pioneering restaurateurs in under-the-radar hoods leads to an increased number of home design stores and other independent ventures... Read more
After more than a decade of experience as a professional custom framer, graphic designer, and furniture maker, beginning from a two-car garage on the North Side, Kansas expat Raun Meyn is branching out with his own Wicker Park retail store this weekend... Read more
The fifth annual CANstruction design contest/benefit for the Greater Chicago Food Depository gets cooking tonight in the lobby of the Merchandise Mart, with a $25-ticket judging party from 6–8:30 p.m... Read more
Crate & Barrel has been showing and selling the bold and joyful fabrics of Finland’s Marimekko company since the mid 1960s, and often uses the material to perk up store displays and distinctively swoop around its retail locations like titanic toilet paperings... Read more
The annual headline-grabbing, international fine art convention at Navy Pier that Chicago used to call Art Expo back in the day has morphed into a three-headed beast called Artropolis, and it’s kicking off tonight and continuing through Monday afternoon at the Merchandise Mart... Read more
Design-seeking Andersonville strollers (with or without strollers) usually troll up and down Clark Street to get their shop on, but there are some eclectic, deserving destinations tucked into storefronts on easily accessed side streets as well... Read more
There’s a big, arty party in Bridgeport tomorrow night, when the Zhou B Art Center hosts a launch party for the latest issue of Chicago Gallery News, the locally published, comprehensive guide to everything that’s happening on the Illinois arts scene... Read more
Chiaroscuro is an Art History 101 (or Art in the Dark, as we sleepy undergrads used to call it) term for the use of lights and darks in paintings to create shadows and depth... Read more
I’ve had a blast at several of Mark Bazer’s monthly Interview Shows at The Hideout, where talk-show guests from all walks of life, from top chefs to best-selling authors to SNL-tapped comedians to fashionistas have walked the boards... Read more
The venerable International Vintage Poster Fair returns to town for the 20th year this weekend, with dozens of dealers from around the world unrolling more than 10,000 original posters at the Chicago Cultural Center... Read more
