Freebie of the Month

Best bet for a free event this month: Tony Fitzpatrick's exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center

By Amy Wiens

Don't ever try to tell Tony Fitzpatrick that Chicago is the 'Second City.' His new exhibition of drawings and collages, The Wonder-Portraits of a Remembered City, serves as an epic memoir of the place he's always called home. It's an ode to cocktail lounges and bowling alleys, beaches and midnight skyscapes, lipstick and pomade-touches of glamour and places of refuge for the midcentury working-class men and women of the artist's childhood. Sweet, gritty, and a little risqué, these images show a clear-eyed city on the make, warts and all, that real Chicagoans can't help but love. No lofty theories or fancy verbiage is needed to guide viewers through this astute exhibition. As Fitzpatrick puts it: "I've got nothing else to say. It's all in the work." May 3-June 29. Free. Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E Washington. 312-744-6630.

Photography: Tony Fitzpatrick, Truck, 10 x 13". Collection of Mickey Cartin

This article appears in the May 2008 issue of Chicago Magazine.

Did you like what you read here? Subscribe to Chicago Magazine »