27 Most Iconic Chicago Art Galleries to Visit in 2024
Chicago is a city rich with art and artists, from colorful murals and street art exhibitions to large and small Chicago art galleries across its carefully laid grid of streets.
So, where is the art scene in Chicago? Does Chicago have any art venues? Many venues are clustered in certain neighborhoods, including River North’s thriving gallery district or Pilsen’s constantly developing creative landscape. Others have bloomed in other corners of the city from the bustling South Loop Wabash Arts Corridor to the laid-back Logan Square.
Is Chicago a good city for art? Chicago is also one of the best cities for artists, filled with immense creative energy and practicing artists, many of whom find their way into local galleries that provide both a professional community and an open door to emerging artists.
Wondering how to find your art style? If you're an artist looking to learn more about the Chicago art scene, or just an art admirer or collector looking to check out amazing work, we’ve rounded up a selection of galleries all over the city that aptly represent what is happening in the city’s diverse art environment.
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- Best Chicago Art Galleries for Emerging Artists
- Largest Chicago Art Galleries
- Small Chicago Art Galleries
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Best Chicago Art Galleries for Emerging Artists
1. Local Art Classes
A perfect place to start to acquaint yourself with Chicago’s art gallery scene is to take a local art class. Some of the best Chicago art galleries offer a chance to engage with other artists and new techniques on an instructional level.
Looking for art classes in Chicago? There are a host of options, including painting classes in Chicago and pottery classes in Chicago offered by a number of organizations, storefronts, galleries and art centers. Art classes are also great if you're new to Chicago and wondering how to meet people in a new city!
2. Chicago Printmakers Collaborative
Offering classes, internships, residencies and exhibition opportunities, Chicago Printmakers Collaborative is a working independent print shop and gallery, offering classes on everything from traditional printmaking and bookbinding to screenprinting and Riso printing.
Plus, they offer yearly memberships, which make perfect experience gifts for artists.
Chicago Printmakers Collaborative | 4912 N. Western Avenue, Chicago
3. Sideshow Gallery
A Chicago art gallery combined with an occult and oddities shop, Sideshow Gallery offers both exhibitions opportunities and mystical goods like books, candles and crystals. They also feature classes in subjects like tarot reading and taxidermy.
Sideshow hosts exhibits by emerging and established artists with an emphasis on work that delves into the strange and weird in all mediums. It also makes a quirky and fun date idea in Chicago.
Sideshow Gallery | 2219 N. Western Avenue, Chicago
4. WomanMade Gallery
A non-profit women-founded and run Chicago art gallery, WomanMade seeks to offer community and exhibition opportunities for female, trans and non-binary artists in their expansive Pilsen location.
They host regular open calls for both solo and group shows, making them one of the best Chicago galleries for emerging artists.
WomanMade Gallery | 2150 N. Canalport Avenue, Chicago
5. Chicago Truborn
Chicago Truborn offers accessible and affordable opportunities to engage with dynamic artwork, with an emphasis on street art and graffiti art from local emerging and established artists.
This unique Chicago art gallery describes itself as an “anti-gallery.” It also specializes in external murals and local commissions that take art out of the gallery and into the streets.
Chicago Truborn | 1741 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago
6. Galerie F
Currently located in Chinatown, Vertical Gallery specializes in street art, printmaking and gig posters, making it one of the best places to buy art in Chicago.
This small Chicago art gallery hosts exhibitions, pop-ups and events across the city, with an in-person and online shop selling affordable prints, enamel pins, stickers and other artist ephemera.
Galerie F | 211 W. 23rd Street, Chicago
Largest Chicago Art Galleries
7. Richard Gray Gallery
This commercial gallery hosts two Chicago locations, one in West Town and another located along the Magnificent Mile. Gray’s emphasis has historically been linking artists with collectors for the past 50 years, focusing on large-scale, abstract and installation art.
This major Chicago art gallery has exhibited such 20th-century luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg and Philip Roth.
Richard Gray Gallery | 815 N. Michigan Avenue and 044 W. Carroll Avenue, Chicago
8. Monique Meloche
One of the most renowned Chicago art galleries, Monque Meloche began as a solo show in the private home of owner Monque Meloche in 2000.
Since then, the gallery has grown exponentially to focus on politically charged work in painting and sculpture with a particular emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
Monique Meloche | 451 N. Paulina Avenue, Chicago
9. Kavi Gupta
Spread across two West Loop locations, Gupta Gallery exhibits International emerging and mid-career artists in multiple genres, including performance and multimedia.
This large Chicago art gallery hosts multiple exhibitions per year with an emphasis on diverse and underappreciated artists. They are continually named in lists of best art galleries in Chicago.
Kavi Gupta | 835 W. Washington Boulevard and 219 N. Elizabeth Street, Chicago
10. Zolla Lieberman Gallery
Founded in 1976 in a converted loft space, this large Chicago art gallery was one of the first operations in what eventually became the famous River North gallery district.
Today, Zolla Lieberman focuses on a wide range of mediums and artists both emerging and established, as well as creating connections between artists and collectors.
Zolla Lieberman Gallery | 325 W. Huron Street, Chicago
11. Corbett vs. Dempsey
Founded by Jim Dempsey and John Corbett in 2004, this Chicago art gallery exhibits artists and art connected to the rich cultural and historical legacy of Chicago itself.
The gallery also manages its own record label, which issues new and re-issued recordings of jazz and other genres of music.
Corbett vs. Dempsey | 2156 W. Fulton Street, Chicago
12. Alphawood
Located in Lincoln Park in a large and lofted space, Alphawood’s exhibits highlight work associated with American history and political topics, including the WWII incarceration of Japanese-Americans and the AIDs crisis.
Alphawood | 2401 N. Halsted Street, Chicago
13. Gallery Guichard
With an emphasis on African-American artists and art history, this Bronzeville gallery hosts one of the largest collections of African-American art in the country.
This dynamic Chicago art gallery seeks to connect artists from international locations like South Africa, Ethiopia and Egypt with local Chicago artists.
Gallery Guichard | 436 E. 47th Street, Chicago
14. Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Founded in the 1970s, this Chicago art gallery has become known for its advocacy of female artists, including famous names like Cindy Sherman and Barbara Krueger.
Located in West Town, it's an all-media gallery that welcomes work from local, national and international artists.
Rhona Hoffman Gallery | 1711 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago
Small Chicago Art Galleries
15. Elephant Room
Founded In 2008 along the South Loop’s dynamic Wabash Arts Corridor, Elephant Room strives to showcase local emerging and mid-career artists in both their main space and other places throughout the city, sponsoring a number of openings, artists discussions and other events.
Elephant Room | 704 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago
16. House of the Apocalypse
Open only a few spare hours each second month on every second Friday of the month, or by appointment, this small gallery in Pilsen tends toward spooky and strange 2D work and sculpture that makes it more than worth planning a visit.
House of the Apocalypse | 1908 S. Halsted Street, Chicago
17. Elastic Arts
A multidisciplinary collaborative space featuring workshops, performances and exhibitions, this great Chicago gallery and arts space in Logan Square hosts a number of Chicago art gallery events and exhibits every year, providing a unique multilayered sensory experience.
Elastic Arts | 3429 W. Diversey Avenue, Chicago
18. Chicago Gamespace
Featuring a playable collection of video games from the past and present, as well as gaming-related and inspired art, this museum and gallery space is a great and interactive place to visit in Logan Square.
Chicago Gamespace | 2418 W. Bloomingdale Avenue, Chicago
19. Vertical Gallery
Located in Ukrainian Village and one of the best small art galleries in Chicago, Vertical Gallery exhibits urban contemporary art with a keen emphasis on street art, graffiti, pop culture, graphic design and illustration.
Vertical Gallery | 2006 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago
20. ARC Gallery
In business since 1973, this women-founded gallery exhibits innovative and experimental art in multiple media and genres and seeks to offer a nurturing cooperative atmosphere for artists, curators and collectors.
They are also one of the only Chicago art galleries accepting submissions regularly.
ARC Gallery | 1463 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago
21. Museum of Contemporary Photography
Tucked amid the Columbia College Chicago campus, this Chicago art gallery and museum houses a collection of historic photographs and rotating exhibitions of new artists on display each year.
Museum of Contemporary Photography | 600 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
22. Document
Doubling as a photographic print studio, this Chicago art gallery exhibits contemporary photography film and other media-based art from new and established artists. They have hosted over 70 solo exhibitions since they opened in 2002.
Document | 1709 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, 60622
23. FLXST
Founded in 2019, FLXST exhibits contemporary fine art and photography with a focus on LGBTQ artists, artists of color and other marginalized creatives. This Chicago art gallery also serves as an art incubator for local artists on Chicago’s near south side.
FLXST | 2251 S. Michigan Avenue. Chicago
24. Morpho Gallery
A combined gallery, record shop and garden, Morpho Gallery sells and exhibits a variety of paintings, etchings and drawings, all made by local emerging artists in a laid-back space with great music.
Morpho Gallery | 5216 N. Damen Avenue, Chicago
25. Goldfinch
An independent commercial gallery, Goldfinch focuses on physical and conceptual art through exhibits, publications, artist talks and salon discussions related to the work they showcase.
Their large exhibit space, situated amidst a number of artist studios in the East Garfield neighborhood, fosters a sense of experimentation, curiosity and collaboration with practicing artists.
Goldfinch | 319 N. Albany Avenue, Chicago
Online Chicago Art Galleries
26. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outside Art
Home to the world-famous Henry Darger Room Collection, Intuit hosts a major static and rotating collection of outsider art, much of which is available to be viewed online.
27. Catherine Edelman Gallery
Focusing exclusively on photography, Catherine Edelman, one of Chicago’s art galleries online, has exhibited some of the premier photographers of our time.
Since its opening in 1987, this Chicago art gallery has placed established greats alongside new and younger artists. It also caters to both seasoned collectors and new buyers. Once a physical location, it is currently a fully virtual gallery that can be visited online.
Looking for great other art ideas in Chicago? Don't forget the city is also home to the world-famous Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art!
Whether you are an artist looking for opportunities and community or a collector or fan looking to purchase amazing art at any price point, Chicago’s gallery scene does not disappoint.
For even more fun Chicago activities, check out other experiences happening on Classpop!
