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Monday 9am - 4pm Tuesday 9am - 4pm Wednesday 9am - 4pm Thursday 9am - 4pm Friday 9am - 4pm

Arts of Life

A collective space for artists with ID/D to expand their practice & strengthen their leadership. Non-Profit Arts Community

04/02/2026

Join us for our VIP Studio Sale + Chili Cook-Off as part of our 4-day Annual Studio Sale supporting Arts of Life! A wide range of artwork from 80+ studio artists will be available at steeply discounted prices. As always, artists receive 60% of their sales!  Get first dibs on the best deals of the year – with prices starting at just $40! Plus, buy 2 pieces, get a 3rd free!

Our VIP night ticket buyers will receive first access to the best deals plus an exclusive raffle, all-you-can-eat all-you-can-eat chili (meat and veggie), and beer, and a $75 framing credit from Artist Frame Service. Tunes by Tdy.

Have you been missing our Chili Cook-Offs of yore? Stop by for some great bites AND the best art deals in town.
 Participating Chili Cook-Off Artist Teams:
Good Weather/Schlep Weatherproof Team Gertie Lan Tuazon & Juan Angel Chavez Gallucci Foy TUSK George & Jeanne’s Mean Chili Lizelia Towilers

GET YOUR VIP TICKETS BEFORE
THEY SELL OUT!!! Link in Bio

llc .chicago

03/30/2026

Vontrell Nunn - Color Zron!!, 2025 - Marker and pen on paper 12 x 18 in.

Vontrell Nunn loves anime cartoons! He often tells epic stories that include these characters. You can see his love for comics, as well as, his family and friends, in his exaggerated charicature like interpretations of his superhero filled worlds. Vontrell’s work gives the viewer a sense of nostalgia, through 90’s comics, that invites us all to reflect on our own surroundings.

Check out his work now on view in No Water, No Moon at Duck-Rabbit Coffee, which closes April 5th.

Duck-Rabbit Coffee
4160 Loraine Avenue
Cleaveland, Ohio

03/27/2026

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month - a time to celebrate individual artistic expression, community, respect, and independence.

Art making can have a huge impact on artists’ lives and provide them with an inclusive creative community. Recently we caught up with a few artists at our South Side studio who wanted to tell us about the art they’ve been working on…

“What I’m working right now are the logos of Chicagoland car dealers that are both in business and out of business. I remember seeing displays at the Auto Show last month at McCormick Place. I’m also drawing Chicago news channel and fast food logos in pencil from the 90s. I watch old tv promos, commercials, and news clips on YouTube.” - Lewis Sandoboe

“I try to make artwork that evokes a type of mood, like a sense of amazement and wonder. In drawing, there’s more you can elicit sometimes, like drawing from visions or dreams. Not everything is reality, but it’s based off of something that could be real, like a particular object or character study.” - Khristian Gillespie

“My colors are the good ones. Cute pink jackets, ponytails, black mascara, peach eyeshadow, purple lipgloss, pink nails.” - Katrina Jackson

03/26/2026

America’s next Top Model, barbies, Fashion Design,…This is a day in a life, a sneak peek into the life of Artist Ariee Carter. As her Artist Spotlight winds down this month, we chatted with her about her passions, ANTM Controversies and more!

03/19/2026

Thank you to all who came out last week to the opening of The Threshold Varies. It was a great turnout! If you couldn’t make it, join guest curator Madeline Gallucci—artist and founder of RADAR—for an inside look at the exhibition during EXPO Art Week.

Featured Artists:
Elizabeth Allen-Cannon – Michael Cuadrado Gonzalez – Forrest Frederick – Ben Gould – Paul Heyer – Katrina Jackson – Will Krauland – Lawrence M. – Susan Pasowicz – Noelia Towers – Lucy Walsh

When:
EXPO ART WEEK Program - Saturday, April 11th from 5-8pm

Where:
Circle Contemporary – West Town
2010 W. Carroll
Chicago, IL 60612

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03/18/2026

South Side Arts of Life Studio Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary!

This month, we are celebrating the two-year anniversary of Arts of Life’s South Side Studio! It’s hard to believe that two years have passed since we opened the doors in March 2024. Located within the historic First Presbyterian Church of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood, our South Side Studio currently supports a nearly full roster of 10 adult artists. Since opening, artists have created 500+ pieces of art across over 5,000 program hours. Some of these artworks have been exhibited in museums, fairs, and galleries across Chicago, Baltimore, Washington DC, and San Francisco.

It’s difficult to summarize the impact that artmaking at Arts of Life can have on the lives of artists and their families. An artist’s mom recently shared,

“Arts of Life has had a great impact. I remember after [my son] graduated from high school, he was just home. He didn’t have anything constructive to do. I’m really pleased and comfortable with knowing that they’re learning something—a trade to help him later on in life. So it’s a great, great, great, great program.”

Unlike our stand-alone studios, the South Side Studio is embedded in the rich history and community at The First Presbyterian Church of Chicago.

Click here- https://artsoflife.org/south-side-studio-celebrates-2-year-anniversary/ to read the full article,to learn about the Church’s history, our intrepid manager Payton Woodard-Harris, our artists and transition students, and more!

03/16/2026

Marcus Imani Kennedy- Sentimental Skah Shah Song Haiti Music and Livin La Vida Loca Ricky Martin Song Art Dancing to the Music - Acrylic, Mural 2025

Marcus Imani Kennedy creates artwork that is very influenced by his love of music and a tribute to the musicians who create it. His extensive, ongoing series of vibrant pattern works have manifested as hundreds of abstract iterations. These velvety acrylic and oil pastel works reflect a sophisticated, intuitive sense of color and form. Marcus shares, “I came up with my own beautiful style. I get inspired by other artists’ work. I make it my own and put music into it.”

Check out Marcus’ Mural at on the Addison Street side of Facility before it comes down on April 1st!

Facility
3616 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, 60657

03/12/2026

We’re ready!!! The Threshold Varies, guest curated by Madeline Gallucci of Radar, opens tomorrow - here’s a little preview! Stop by the opening reception from 5-8pm.

ABOUT:
The Threshold Varies is a group exhibition featuring artists who engage in perception as something that is variable, contingent, and unstable. The works in the exhibition operate between containment and overflow, hovering at the limits of visibility and testing how intensity becomes legible.
 FEATURED ARTISTS: Elizabeth Allen-Cannon, Michael Cuadrado Gonzalez, Forrest Frederick, Ben Gould, Paul Heyer, Katrina Jackson, Will Krauland, Lawrence M., Susan Pasowicz, Noelia Towers, Lucy Walsh  WHEN: Opening Reception - Friday, March 13 5-8pm

WHERE:
Circle Contemporary - West Town 2010 W. Carroll Ave Chicago, IL 60612

FOR MORE DETAILS hit the events link in our bio or via our website events page.
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03/05/2026

Tim Stone
The Darkness After Time, 2025
Graphite on paper
19 x 24 in.
48.3 x 61 cm.

ABOUT: Tim Stone has cultivated a disciplined studio practice centered on the rigorous exploration of abstract grid systems. Although proficient in diverse media such as watercolor and acrylic, his current work prioritizes the physical manipulation of graphite to create monochromatic, burnished surfaces that record the passage of time. This labor-intensive methodology involves repetitive mark-making that fundamentally alters the paper’s topography, reflecting a steadfast commitment to his aesthetic vision. Beyond his personal output, Stone serves on the curatorial committee at Circle Contemporary, where he collaborates with guest curators to integrate studio residents into the broader contemporary art dialogue.

Check out Tim Stone’s The Darkness After Time now featured in the dual exhibition Parallel Acts, until April 25th, at Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 S. Ashland Ave Chicago, IL.

03/03/2026

Bathtub, 2022 Chalk pastel and graphite on paper 7 3⁄4 x 10 1⁄4 in
Renata Berdes

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Renata Berdes’ persistence and focus in pursuit of her artistic outcomes is indomitable. Themes, or what she often calls “obsessions,” are pursued with much intention. When viewed collectively, her sculptural works suggest the assemblage of a new space that plays with scale and permanence. Individually her sculptures are imbued with the magic of what is possible; first there was nothing, and now by Berdes’ hands and imagination the object exists. Found objects are unified through an intimate connection with the sense of touch that manifests in rich textures. Berdes invites us to see the world from her perspective and delights viewers with her reinterpretation of what is.

“I really like art because you can see everything through art.”

Bathtub is on view now at LVL3 as part of the exhibition In Bloom which closes March 8th so don’t miss it!

WHERE:
LVL3
1542 N Milwaukee Ave 3rd floor
Chicago IL 60622

02/27/2026

💘 February photo dump 💕

02/25/2026

Our current Artist Spotlight, Ariée Carter, loves the Barbie universe! You can see it in her colorful painting “Barbie and the ImaginationTopia” as well as in her fashion drawings.

Check out more work by Ariée via the link in our bio.

Image 1:
Ariée
Barbie and the ImaginationTopia, 2025
Acrylic, paint marker, pen, marker and paper on canvas
48 x 36 in.
121.9 x 91.4 cm.

Image 2:
Ariee next to her surrealism style pink themed painting featuring a woman with an elongated neck and black and white stripe top and big yellow hair filled with various creatures, standing in water, under a pink sky, with unicorns and a smiling sun.
ImaginationTopia

Address

2010 W Carroll Avenue
Chicago, IL
60612

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 4pm
Tuesday	9am - 4pm
Wednesday	9am - 4pm
Thursday	9am - 4pm
Friday	9am - 4pm

Telephone

+13128292787

Website

http://www.artsoflife.org/

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