Tucked into an unassuming Lincoln Park side street is a trio of new exhibitions at Wrightwood 659 (659 W. Wrightwood Ave.) exploring shape-shifting sculpture and traditional ballet.
The exhibit, running through December 20, utilizes the four-floor gallery to display “Scott Burton: Shape Shift,” “The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S.” and “Ellen Altfest: Forever,” each of which offers a unique purview for patrons. Diverse in subjects and presentation, all three of Wrightwood 659’s fall exhibitions exist at the intersection of art and human relationships.
Three decades of work from Scott Burton, an American sculptor and performance artist who died in 1989 from an AIDS-related illness, are on display on the top floor, which curator Jess Wilcox describes more as a “museum” due to its immersive, sometimes even interactive, nature.
“It’s still a gallery, but it’s sort of beyond the walls. It’s spilling out,” Wilcox shared.
Dozens of sculptures and photographs capture Burton’s diverse array of work, a focus on furniture and its relationship to human connection at the core. The very first installation shows an array of ways to sit—alone, as a couple, and as a group—setting a tone for the exhibit, previously displayed at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri.
Many of the works tie back to Burton’s experience as a gay man during the height of the AIDS epidemic, a time full of fear of touch and intimacy, something Wilcox said relates today in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So much of Scott Burton’s work was looking about what’s unsaid in between reading the social context, and that social context is here,” she said. “It is responding to that history.”
“It does speak across generations, but I think it’s important for people to see now,” Wilcox added, also pointing to a rise in homophobic and transphobic policies and rhetoric from the Trump administration.
Installations capture a wide-array of furniture pieces and artwork, some almost camouflaging their surroundings, with the addition of a reflection room where guests can sit on the pieces.
The floor below takes patrons into an exhibit all about the Joffrey Ballet, Chicago’s premier ballet institution, which got its start 70 years ago in New York City, and has been Chicago-based since the ’90s. Curated by Dr. Julia Foulkes, the gallery proudly displays the ballet’s history—from a plethora of newspaper headlines on every wall to advertisements from the early days, alongside more than 200 archival materials.
, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
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“What struck me about going through all the materials was that the company itself was the success,” Dr. Foulkes exclaimed during a tour of the exhibit. “The company itself is the story.”
That’s evident in each nook and cranny, the ballet’s distinct history celebrated, alongside Robert Joffrey himself.
The gallery’s final exhibit is an intimate display of 15 oil paintings by Ellen Altfest, organized by Nashville’s Frist Art Museum. Each piece explores the artist’s own surroundings, from close-ups on a man’s armpit and genitals to a life-size reflection of a tumbleweed.
General admission tickets cost $20 and can be purchased on the gallery’s website.