All events on Friday July 11
Previous day|Next day- Music: Rock/Pop
- Feist
- Friday July 11 (8pm) @ The Pavilion at Ravinia in Highland Park
- No one could have foreseen Leslie Feist's slingshot rise to indie stardom. Actually, on second thought, wasn't it always kind of obvious? After all, Feist's... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- Dengue Fever
- Friday July 11 (10pm) @ The Empty Bottle
- Giveaway
- Dengue Fever's musical M.O. — lush, surf-inspired psychedelic rock, spiked with Chhom Nimol's shiver-inducing Khmer soprano — is well-known to fans and followers. Since its... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko File
- Friday July 11 @ Facets Cinémathèque More times »
- The tragic turn of events surrounding Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning and subsequent death unfolded like a seedy crime novel. The exiled ex-KGB agent-turned-critic was... View details »
- Film
- Tell No One
- Friday July 11 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Herein lies living proof that the French can spin a gorgeous existentialist drama in any genre. Pediatrician Alex (François Cluzet) has never gotten over the... View details »
- Art
- Jane Fisher
- Friday July 11 (6–9pm) @ Packer Schopf Gallery More times »
- OpeningFree
- Figurative painter Jane Fisher returns to Chicago with her latest series of paintings: a simple celebration of humanity entitled Big Heads and Bigger Women. The... View details »
- Film
- The Wackness
- Friday July 11 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- The Wackness is the sort of movie whose most redeeming qualities are least likely to be advertised in its trailers. About a teenage weed dealer... View details »
- Art
- Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs
- Friday July 11 (5–8pm) @ Intuit More times »
- OpeningFree
- Whereas most found-art exhibitions make aesthetic objects out of forgotten knick-knacks, the focus of this exhibition is, more literally, fine art that's found. Discarded Paintings... View details »
- Film
- Outsourced
- Friday July 11 @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- What do you do if the only way to save your job is to fly off to India and train your replacement? Well, if you're... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- Modey Lemon
- Friday July 11 (9:30pm) @ Beat Kitchen
- In the early aughts, Pittsburgh scuzz-fuzz trio Modey Lemon were easy to lump in with a gaggle of garage revivalists. Nowadays, with their contemporaries aping... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Brown Bag Stitching Salon
- Friday July 11 (noon–1:30pm) @ Jane Addams Hull House Museum More times »
- Free
- This bring-your-own-lunch gathering of handicrafters is held in honor of artist, educator, and social activist Ellen Gates Starr, who historically co-founded the progressive community Hull... View details »
- Art
- Jeff Koons
- Friday July 11 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- It's easy to forget that art star and auction darling Jeff Koons made his name as a provocateur. His Made in Heaven series includes photographs... View details »
- Art
- Jay Davis
- Friday July 11 (11am–6pm) @ Bucket Rider More times »
- Free
- Brooklyn-based artist Jay Davis returns to Chicago with new paintings on vinyl. His colorful, mystical pieces are complex and full of life, vibrating with recurring... View details »
- Film
- The Visitor
- Friday July 11 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Some character actors should really never be leading men (Jude Law), and some just haven't been given the chance. Richard Jenkins (I Heart Huckabees, 2004)... View details »
- Art
- Ladylike
- Friday July 11 (1–6pm) @ Gosia Koscielak Gallery More times »
- Free
- In a post-third-wave landscape of mommy wars, Sex and the City fever, and continuous political upheaval, feminism is having a bit of an identity crisis.... View details »
- Art
- Christa Donner
- Friday July 11 (10am–4pm) @ International Museum of Surgical Science More times »
- For decades, the International Museum of Surgical Science has spotlighted the macabre wonders of invasive surgery. But along with historical displays of bizarre artifacts and... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
- Campaign Supernova!
- Friday July 11 (8 & 11pm) @ The Second City e.t.c. in Chicago More times »
- From the director of the recent hit Between Barack and a Hard Place comes another election-season winner, Campaign Supernova!, performed by Second City. Where... View details »
- Art
- Portraying Food (and the Absence of It)
- Friday July 11 (10:30am–5:30pm) @ Walsh Gallery More times »
- Free
- Interest in Chinese art has reached a fever pitch, but Wu Hung has always been ahead of the curve. Since 1999, the curator and scholar... View details »
- Art
- Collecting for Chicago
- Friday July 11 (10:30am–9pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
- You may not have noticed, but the Art Institute's Department of Prints and Drawings has been running in stealth mode — its world-class collection was... View details »
- Art
- Videodance
- Friday July 11 (9am–5pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center More times »
- Free
- Since 1978, the Centre Pompidou in Paris has paired visual artists with choreographers and dancers at its annual Vidéodanse festival. The results of these... View details »
- Art
- Mario Ybarra, Jr.
- Friday July 11 (10:30am–5pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
- Free
- In his first solo museum exhibition, Mario Ybarra, Jr. presents a witty comparison of Chicago and Los Angeles through the exploits of William Wrigley, Jr..... View details »
- Art
- Alex Katz: Subject to Reversal
- Friday July 11 (10am–4:30pm) @ Richard Gray Gallery More times »
- Free
- At 81, Alex Katz has only recently emerged as one of America's major contemporary artists. The Richard Gray Gallery shows why the artist's profile has... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- A Steady Rain
- Friday July 11 (8pm) @ Royal George Theatre Center More times »
- Most playwrights would kill for the rave reviews that have been heaped upon Keith Huff's A Steady Rain. Happily, the only homicide here is in... View details »
- Art
- Jim Tansley
- Friday July 11 (8am–6pm) @ Chicago Cultural Center More times »
- Free
- Jim Tansley's abstract paintings and drawings combine seemingly familiar lines with expanses of soft color to create arrangements that appear both carefully structured and completely... View details »
- Art
- David Hockney
- Friday July 11 (11am–6pm) @ The Arts Club of Chicago More times »
- Free
- David Hockney gained recognition in the '60s for his flat, single-panel paintings of swimming pools, but he also creates more narrative-based work, like pieced-together canvases... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Brian Ulrich and Jason Lazarus
- Friday July 11 (10am–6:30pm) @ City Gallery More times »
- Free
- Jason Lazarus and Brian Ulrich take an irreverent glimpse behind the scenes of the art market with About Art, their photographic exhibition at City Gallery... View details »
- Film
- When Did You Last See Your Father?
- Friday July 11 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Adapted from writer Blake Morrison's 1993 memoir about his bullying father's death from cancer, When Did You Last See Your Father? tackles potentially maudlin material... View details »
- Art
- Michael Jones McKean
- Friday July 11 (11am–6pm) @ ThreeWalls More times »
- Free
- Michael Jones McKean's ramshackle constructions combine disparate found objects with wood, clay, and papier-mâché. His work has a strong physical presence, and the unusual artifacts... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Gutenberg! The Musical!
- Friday July 11 (8pm) @ Royal George Theatre Center More times »
- Aspiring Broadway composer/lyricists trying to attract angel investors usually consider more contemporary material than Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Yet that's the sputtering... View details »
- Film
- Brick Lane
- Friday July 11 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- With its sunflower hues poking through England's grime, Brick Lane cleaves to the trajectory of an East-to-West immigration tale. Teenager Nazneen leaves her small Bangladeshi... View details »
- More Flavor: Workshop
- Foundation for Freedom
- Friday July 11 (1–4pm) @ Mess Hall More times »
- Free
- Regarding those who toil on Madison Avenue, the acid-tongued Bill Hicks once riffed, "You are Satan's little helpers… kill yourself, seriously… it's the only way... View details »
- Art
- ISN'T IT
- Friday July 11 (11am–5pm) @ Tony Wight Gallery More times »
- Free
- At first glance, ISN'T IT appears to be a loose collection of sculptures that brings modest materials to life. But the exhibition rewards close viewing,... View details »
- Film
- My Winnipeg
- Friday July 11 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- In My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin fashions both a valentine and a Dear John letter to his hometown, with a hypnagogic blur of sliding typography, found... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Up the Yangtze
- Friday July 11 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- Earthquakes and social protest make headlines, but a far more complex and subtle catastrophe is taking shape in the shadow of China's Three Gorges Dam,... View details »
- Art
- Clouds, et al
- Friday July 11 (10:30am–6:30pm) @ Carrie Secrist Gallery More times »
- Free
- During the quiet months of summer, dealers often turn to group exhibitions as an easy way to trot out the work of multiple artists. In... View details »
- More Flavor: Tour
- Millennium Park Revealed
- Friday July 11 (11am) @ Chicago Architecture Foundation More times »
- Millennium Park has only been open officially for four years, but it's already a Chicago landmark. And like most things in the Windy City, its... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
- Friday July 11 @ Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary More times »
- Free
- If nothing else, taking up birdwatching gives you a convenient excuse to bring terms like "Magnificent Frigatebird" and "Purple Gallinule" into conversation. In this sancturary,... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
- Friday July 11 (7:30am–7:30pm) @ Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool More times »
- Free
- Escape the roaring cars on Lake Shore Drive and the crowds at Lincoln Park Zoo by slipping through the unobtrusive entrance to the Alfred Caldwell... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Flower Power
- Friday July 11 (9am–5pm) @ Garfield Park Conservatory More times »
- Free
- If the concrete trek and throngs of spectators at Friday's Fourth of July festivities leave you pining for something a little more spacious and herbaceous,... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Superior Donuts
- Friday July 11 @ Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre More times »
- Chicago theatergoers might know better, but for a long time, most people only recognized Tracy Letts as "that guy from the Festivus episode of Seinfeld."... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy/Improv
- Baby Wants Candy
- Friday July 11 (10:30pm) @ Apollo Theater More times »
- Whether you love or fear musicals, you can delight in Baby Wants Candy, a fully improvised comedy show with song, dance, and a live band.... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
- Macho
- Friday July 11 (7:30–9 & 9:30–11pm) @ Lincoln Lodge More times »
- Tonight might be your only chance this summer to get a shot of testosterone delivered by two women, as NYC comics Joselyn Hughes and Brooke... View details »
- Art
- Several Landscapes and 3 Landscapes in the Modern Style
- Saturday July 12 (6–9pm) @ Western Exhibitions More times »
- Free
- If you relish summer group exhibitions and air conditioning, head to the two landscape-themed shows at Western Exhibitions. Director Scott Speh works with several artists... View details »
- Art
- Gisela Insuaste
- Friday July 11 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- Local artist Gisela Insuaste mines the terrain of personal recollection and material culture for her multidisciplinary installations. In painting, drawing, and three-dimensional forms, Insuaste conjures... View details »
- More Flavor: Sports
- Taste of Fitness
- Friday July 11 (6pm) @ Various locations More times »
- Free
- Let's be honest — exercising in gyms is boring and expensive. But the Chicago Park District has a solution to the ubiquitous dilemma: free outdoor... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Bloody Bess
- Friday July 11 (7:30pm) @ Storefront Theater More times »
- Bloody Bess isn't a pirate story for children, and it's definitely not your standard, polite downtown theater — the show's full of swashbuckling swagger, clamoring... View details »
- Art
- Boys of Summer
- Friday July 11 (11am–5pm) @ Monique Meloche More times »
- Free
- A good group exhibition can feel like a free buffet serving top-quality market produce; it all looks so enticing, and you don't know where to... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Gonzo
- Friday July 11 @ Various locations More times »
- The father of gonzo journalism and a '60s-counterculture icon, Hunter S. Thompson revolutionized American prose with his drug-fueled, first-person narrative style. His maverick ways allowed... View details »
