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Western Exhibitions is a contemporary art gallery that shows thought-provoking, and visually innovative artists who work across most media, with an emphasis on personal narratives and cosmologies; LGBTQ and feminist artists and issues; pattern, decoration and surface concerns; works on paper; and artist books. Western Exhibitions presents unique artist projects, curated group shows and maintains a specific inventory of artist books and multiples, gathered together as a sister entity and store, WesternXeditions.
Artists represented:
Dan Attoe, Marshall Brown, Elijah Burgher, Jessica Campbell, Lilli Carré, Courttney Cooper, Edie Fake, Nicholas Frank, Julia Schmitt Healy, Richard Hull, Jessica Labatte, Dutes Miller, Miller & Shellabarger, Aya Nakamura, Rachel Niffenegger, Paul Nudd, Robyn O’Neil, Stan Shellabarger, Geoffrey Todd Smith, Deb Sokolow, and Ben Stone.
Upcoming 2026 exhibitions:
Jan 9-Mar 21: Spaces for People, Systems for Spaces (group show about the built environment)
Mar 27-May 30: Marshall Brown
Jun 5-Aug 15: Richard Hull
Image: Marshall Brown, installation view of Remastériser, Western Exhibitions, 2023. Photo by James Prinz.
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\r\n\r\nMy subconscious has melted away and seems to have been replaced by the muted, jangled chorus of my microbiome. I'm not sure if this condition is rare or widespread. I expect it is widespread and that our microbiomes are battling with our subconsciouses for supremacy. There is no battle in me, though. My subconscious is gone. Human Events is a series of works reflecting on this condition. It proceeds through a chain of associations. "Atheists Need Theology, Too," the first of seven videos, begins with a poem by Emily Dickinson, "To fill a Gap / Insert the Thing that caused it — ." All of Human Events, then, could be read as a gloss on the poem. Or, one could choose — or be compelled by their dwindling subconsciouses and roiling microbiomes to choose — any other link in this chain of associations and use that as the starting point. -- Steve Reinke
\r\n\r\nFor his first show at Western Exhibitions, Chicago-based artist Steven Reinke will present Portfolio A, ten prints he made with Stan Shellabarger at Spudnik Press; two high-definition videos from his ongoing series Human Events, and a suite of drawings related to the first video, Atheists Need Theology, Too.
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\r\nMemories, fantasy and the desiring body have been central themes in the work of Steve Reinke since the 1980s. His videos typically take a diaristic or collage format, melding archival sources with a seemingly autobiographical narrative. Reinke is perhaps best known for The Hundred Videos, completed between 1989 and 1996; its underlying theme confronts the authority of filmmaking and the construction of the documentary genre. The Toronto International Film Festival named it one of the 150 essential works in Canadian cinematic history. Reinke’s work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), MACBA (Barcelona) and the National Gallery of Canada. His films have screened festivals including Sundance, Oberhausen and the New York Video Festival and his work has been exhibited at the 2015 Istanbul Bienali, Art Gallery of Ontario, ICA London, Wexner Center in Columbus, OH, DePaul Art Museum and a solo show at Isabella Bortollozzi in Berlin, among several others. In 2006, he received the Bell Canada Award in Video Art. In 2014, he was included in the Whitney Biennial in collaboration with Jessie Mott. Steve Reinke (born 1963) lives and works in Chicago and is a professor of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University.