21c Museum Hotel Chicago is thrilled to announce the debut of its new on-site exhibition, Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art, scheduled to open Monday, March 21. The multi-media exhibition illuminates the intersection of celebrity, commerce, technology and the media, including notable works by Nick Cave, Titus Kaphar, Hank Willis Thomas and Kehinde Wiley, among others. Spanning all 10,000+ square feet of the 21c Museum Hotel Chicago’s gallery space, Pop Stars! features over 90 works of art by 55 artists from around the world. The opening reception is planned for Thursday, March 24, at 6 p.m., with the curator’s remarks at 6:30 p.m.
Brian Paumier, Act of Faith, 2014 Unique cuadros, archival pigment prints on panel with resin. Credit 21c Museum Hotels.
The artists exhibited in Pop Stars! examine recent shifts in how culture is being created and consumed, demonstrating the dominance of the popular as today’s ubiquitous culture. Curated by Museum Director and Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites, Pop Stars! will be on view at 21c Museum Hotel Chicago through February 2023.
“Superheroes and celebrities, totems and toys: the imagery of manufactured fantasy is reframed in the visual language of historical iconography,” said Stites. “With unprecedented access to an audience of one’s own, we find affirmation onscreen, and venerate fame as a final destination. As the real and the virtual increasingly collide, boundaries between art and media further blur, inspiring new mythologies realized in new materials: stars of stage, screen, and sport are re-envisioned, offering insight into how desire shapes identity. References to religious iconography are integrated into a spectrum of artworks that illustrate the persistent, powerful impact of technology on who we are and what we want.”
The diverse group of artists featured in Pop Stars! find inspiration in popular culture, appropriating and reworking imagery from art history, commerce, politics, religion, science, sports and technology. The legacy of late 20th century Pop Art is evident throughout the exhibition: Andy Warhol’s style and subject matter echo in paintings by Van Hoang, Rebecca Campbell, Walter Robinson, Titus Kaphar and Ryan McGinness; in sculptural works by Sanford Biggers, Felipe Barbosa and Olivier Blanckart; in the photography of David Scheinmann, Adriana Duque and Slater Bradley; and in multi-media works by Nick Cave, April Bey and Godfried Donkor, among others. R. Luke DuBois, Shamus Clisset, Robert Wilson, Katie Miller and others utilize digital tools and
imagery, demonstrating how pop culture is increasingly synonymous with technoculture.
Today, artists like Kehinde Wiley, Derrick Adams, Frances Goodman, Hank Willis Thomas, Laurel Nakadate, Brian Paumier, and others, enshrine the everyday, intertwining high and low and past and present, to reveal the evolution of our identities and aspirations in a rapidly changing world. Nick Cave’s embellished sculpture, Hustle Coat (2014), imbues the mundane with mystical and otherworldly qualities. An ordinary trench coat is lined with row-upon-row of glistening jewels, watches and chains, referencing the coats worn by street salesman who offer “knock-offs” of luxury brand goods at a fraction of the price. Cave’s work perfectly encapsulates the elevation of the everyday so synonymous with Pop Art and popular culture today.
21c Museum Hotel Chicago is one of nine 21c Museum Hotel locations that form North America’s only multi-venue museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting the art of the 21st century. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and free of charge to the public, 21c Museum Hotel Chicago offers guided docent tours of current exhibitions, adding another must-see cultural destination to the city’s vibrant art scene for both travelers and residents. Guided docent tours begin in the hotel lobby every Friday at 5 p.m.
ABOUT 21c MUSEUM HOTEL CHICAGO
21c Museum Hotel Chicago, one of the newest hotels in downtown Chicago, offers travelers a one-of-a-kind experience that blurs the line between contemporary art museum and boutique hotel. Boasting 297 beautifully appointed rooms including 106 suites, the hotel is located at 55 East Ontario Street. 21c Museum Hotel Chicago joins eight others renowned 21c Hotel locations across the country to form North America’s only multi-venue museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting the art of the 21st century. 21c Museum Hotel has over 10,000 square feet of gallery space to exhibit the work of notable contemporary artists. The current exhibition on view, This We Believe, features the work of more than 50 contemporary artists and explores the power and evolution of belief systems. For more information, including hotel and museum visit reservations, visit www.21cchicago.com.
ABOUT 21c MUSEUM HOTELS
21c Museum Hotels, an award-winning hospitality company based in Louisville, Kentucky, is pushing the boundaries of both the museum and hotel worlds to create a new kind of travel experience. The company was founded as a single property by contemporary art collectors and preservationists Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, whose mission was to share innovative contemporary art with the public and participate in the revitalization of downtown Louisville. The couple opened the first 21c in 2006 along downtown’s West Main Street, rehabilitating a series of 19th-century warehouses to create a union of genuine hospitality, thoughtful design, and culinary creativity — all anchored by a contemporary art museum. Today, guests can enjoy nine 21c Museum Hotels in Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; Bentonville, Arkansas; Durham, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee, Oklahoma City; Oklahoma; Kansas City, Missouri; and Chicago, Illinois. 21c projects are also under development in Des Moines, Iowa, and St. Louis, Missouri. The company is equally focused on creating unique, chef-driven restaurants that are as much a part of the community as each hotel.
The 21c restaurant portfolio includes; Proof on Main, Metropole, The Hive, Counting
House, Lockbox, Mary Eddy’s Kitchen x Lounge, Gray and Dudley, The Savoy and Garage Bar.