Three exhibitions are slated to be shown at the Lincoln Park space Wrightwood 659 on Oct. 3-Dec. 20.
One exhibition is Scott Burton: Shape Shift, a critically acclaimed exhibition surveying the seminal—and subversive—art of Scott Burton (1939-89). By the time of his death at the age of 50 from an AIDS-related illness, Burton—who once described his work as “sculpture in love with furniture”—had succeeded as sculptor, public artist, performance artist, social choreographer, art critic and exhibition curator.
This landmark exhibition spans that career, bringing together works from the 1960s to the ‘80s, including some 30 sculptures and more than 40 photographs, drawings and ephemera. The exhibition is installed on Wrightwood 659’s third and fourth floors.
The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S., the second display, is a large-scale exhibition celebrating the history of The Joffrey Ballet and the life of Robert Joffrey. The exhibition premiered at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 2024, marking the first major retrospective of the company.
Highlights include rare film from the original performance of the groundbreaking ballet Astarte and Anna Sokolow’s Opus 65, as well as costumes, props, pointe shoes, posters, correspondence and other ephemera from the company and Robert Joffrey’s life.
The third exhibition is Ellen Altfest: Forever —a selection of 15 oil paintings by the U.S. representational painter Ellen Altfest, known for her painstakingly labor-intensive canvases and her observation of things in the world often overlooked in art. Working directly from observation without photographic sources or references, she often spends months—and sometimes more than a year—on a single painting.