There are approximately 158 Art & Design exhibitions and events happening this weekend, including opening receptions for “Jim Lutes: Half-Ass Rapture” at Valerie Carberry Gallery and “Party Crashers” at Concertina Gallery. Check out our listings if you don’t want to miss anything, and preview this weekend’s receptions in the image gallery above.

Here are selected events that didn’t make it into print. Unless otherwise noted, they’re free.

Tonight (Friday 20) in the Loop, SAIC’s Holiday Art Sale of student work continues until 7pm at the SAIC’s MacLean Center Ballroom, 112 S Michigan Ave. The sale’s also open Saturday 21, 10am–5pm.

In River West, Woman Made Gallery opens three shows tonight (Friday 20), 6–9pm: “Cross Pollination,” which highlights encaustic works; “Family Album,” curated by the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s Karen Irvine, and Laurel Delaney’s solo show “Myth–Illogical.”

Joseph Piccillo unveils graphite and charcoal drawings at River North’s Perimeter Gallery tonight (Friday 20), 5–8pm.

The Center on Halsted in Boystown hosts a reception for “Pate Conaway” tonight (Friday 20), 6:30–9:30pm ($5 suggested donation).

In Bridgeport, Co-Prosperity Sphere presents “Super Bad Ass” in conjunction with the Select Media Festival. (Friday 20, 7pm–1am. Free before 9pm, $8 afterward.)

Saturday 21 in Pilsen, illustrator Craig Hansen and designer Chris May of Program Studio celebrate the launch of their book Reflection Passed at Golden Age from 7–11pm.

In Logan Square, HungryMan Gallery debuts the photo show “Creator/Curator” Saturday 21, 6–11pm.

In Wicker Park, the new alternative gallery Parking Space hosts a reception for its second show, “The Twenty-First,” and barbara&barbara gallery commemorates its first anniversary with “Self Portraits.” Both events are Saturday 21, 7–11pm.

There are approximately 155 Art & Design exhibitions and events happening this weekend, including great shows we’ve recently reviewed like “Dagmar Varady: Redden” at devening projects + editions and “Vivan Sundaram: Trash” at Walsh Gallery. Check out our listings if you don’t want to miss anything; our image gallery above offers a taste of this weekend’s receptions.

Here are selected events that didn’t make it into this week’s print edition. They all begin tonight (Friday 13) and all free.

In West Lakeview, the Cornelia Arts Building Open House kicks off from 6–10pm and continues Saturday 14 and Sunday 15, noon–5pm.

Humboldt Park’s new alterna-gallery Garage Spaces opens its second show, “Den,” from 5–10pm. Can someone explain to us what “couch bumps” are?

From 6–10pm in Pilsen, the Chicago Art Department hosts “$200,” in which CAD’s dozen resident artists answer the question “What does $200 mean to you?” in art and text.

In Ukrainian Village, Rotofugi unveils new drawings, prints, paintings “and possibly plush” by Jesse Ledoux and Veggiesomething from 7–10pm.

Syndy Ziegenfuss presents new mixed-media collages on wood in “Tipping Observation” at Mars Gallery in the West Loop from 7–10pm.

Here are selected events that didn’t make it into this week’s print edition. Unless otherwise noted, events are free.

In the West Loop, ebersmoore holds special hours for its new show “Rob Carter: Stone on Stone” today until 9pm.

In River North, David Weinberg Gallery debuts recent wax-infused abstract paintings by Eric Blum and mixed-media assemblages by Hunt Rettig in “Infuse” Friday 6, 5–8pm.

Wicker Park/Bucktown First Friday takes over the Flatiron Arts Building Friday 6, 6–10pm. ($5 suggested donation.)

Lincoln Square’s Fill in the Blank Gallery highlights humorous prints by Gretchen Huffman in “Choose Your Own Adventure” tonight, Friday 6, 7–10pm.

On Saturday 7 at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago artist Silvia Malagrino explains how Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828) influences her work as part of the museum’s Artist Connect series. (1–2pm, free with museum admission.)

The Art Institute also hosts “Photography Conversation,” a Chicago Humanities Festival event, from 1–2pm. Curator Matthew S. Witkovsky speaks with artists Liz Deschenes and Gaylen Gerber about the new works they prepared for the Modern Wing’s inaugural photography exhibition. ($5, educators and students free.)

In the West Loop, McCormick Gallery hosts a reception for “Melville Price: USA,” which highlights the W.P.A. artist’s 1960s works, Saturday 7, 4–7pm.

At Pilsen gallery and boutique Golden Age, Alex Fuller (of the Post Family) and Gabe Usadel celebrate the release of their book The Incredible Journey That Is Consciousness from 7–11pm.

Sunday 8, 11am–6pm, Bruce Thorn hosts a “Studio Exhibition” in Ravenswood with work by William Conger, Susan Michod and several other local artists.

In Oak Park, the mysterious New York artist Donelle Woolford (Google her, you’ll see what we mean) visits The Suburban Sunday 8, 2–4pm. Woolford exhibits recent paintings and gives a performance, Dan Graham Withdrawal Syndrome, at 2pm.

“After the initial panic was overcome,” Molon told the Artists at Work Forum audience, the MCA and SAIC curators realized they could work together. Soon, encouraged by SAIC director of exhibitions Mary Jane Jacob, five other partners—the DCA, Columbia College, UIC’s Gallery 400, the Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) and ThreeWalls, a nonprofit gallery in the West Loop—agreed to collaborate on a year-long, citywide initiative devoted to the artist’s studio: Studio Chicago.

Studio Chicago launched in October with Chicago Artists Month 2009, but the Artists at Work Forum represented the first opportunity for the public to learn about it in detail. All of Gallery 400’s shows next year, according to director Lorelei Stewart, focus on artists “who are reconsidering processes of production,” including the New York–based collective Dexter Sinister, which visits in October. This spring at the MCA, Kerry James Marshall examines representations of artists’ studios as part of Studio Chicago’s rich lecture series. The initiative also has spawned publications such as the “Artists Run Chicago” Digest ThreeWalls and Green Lantern Press release Sunday 8. In the summer, artists’ residencies—already a mainstay of ThreeWalls’ mission—will transform the Hyde Park Art Center and Sullivan Galleries from static exhibition spaces into active studios.

Studio Chicago should help laypeople understand what artists do but probably will have the most significant impact on the city’s creative professionals. The DCA’s Barbara Koenen says her agency will conduct a Web-based space and technical-assistance survey next year—the first such study since 2000—to evaluate Chicago artists’ demand for studio space and their financial constraints. The DCA is already working with the Chicago Department of Community Development to make space available in the Cermak Road Creative Industry District; Koenen hopes to secure artists in other neighborhoods a piece of the TIF (tax increment financing) district pie as well. Educating city bureaucrats about artists’ activities could lead to more sensible policy and legislation, she predicts, citing licensing reforms as well as zoning changes that would create more live/work spaces. Right now, Koenen explains, “A lot of people don’t understand the idea of doing something not for the money.” For more information, see our November 12 issue.

Photo: Zach Gross, 2007.

This evening, acclaimed performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes and Violeta Luna of the ensemble La Pocha Nostra cap off a weeklong residency at Columbia College with a free public performance of Corpo/Ilicito: The Post-Human Society #69. I talked yesterday with Gómez-Peña, the recipient of a 1991 MacArthur “genius grant” and a longtime explorer of cultural and psychological border territory, about the new work.

Time Out Chicago: You’ve described Corpo/Ilicito as responding to the challenge of the end of the Bush regime. How does Obama’s election alter the position of the oppositional artist?

Guillermo Gómez-Peña: We’re exploring philosophically the transition from a legacy of cultural fear, the demonization of the body of the Other: the Latino immigrant, the queer body, the female body. This legacy is still with us, parasitic, like a lingering fog in the streets and in the institutions. How is it affecting us? How are we self-censoring?

And then how does this fit with an institutionalized culture of hope? We’re trying to compare notes from our own project of hope. Are we in sync with them? Is Obama willing to listen to artists and intellectuals?

TOC: You’ve developed this iteration of the performance in part through workshops at Columbia College. How has that process worked?

GGP: It’s been fantastic. There was a very sophisticated curatorial process that drew artists from organizations and communities throughout the city. It’s a very diverse group—diverse in age, in art practice, in ethnicity. We’ve got a very interesting troupe, and we’re hoping there will be a residue, that some will be empowered to participate in the process when we return for the second part, in the spring.  At Columbia, we’ve found the ideal conditions for our own style of pedagogy. And that’s crucial, because these kinds of educational spaces are appearing less and less within our institutions and universities; they’ve become more careful, worrying more about what kind of art or conversation they can support.

TOC: Your work has often centered on the issue of the border, especially the U.S.-Mexico border. Did the border arise as an issue during this Chicago residency?

GGP: Yes. I think that national borders are being reproduced in our cities. Chicago is a city that suffers from endemic internal borders. Inevitably, in the work that we workshopped, a lot of these borders began to emerge.

There are borders between neighborhoods, borders between genders. You have, for instance, new generations of gay and lesbian Latino artists who have trouble with older activist organizations that may not be so open to their imagery.

And the issue of immigration remains problematic under Obama. Politicians don’t talk about immigration—this is another legacy of the Bush era. There’s been a formidable demonization of the Latino Other in our institutions, and this worries me very much as a border artist. With the frail, precarious position of undocumented immigrants, it’s as though we’re back in a pre–civil rights era. And this is not part of the national debate. They don’t have strong voices speaking for them, and they are still a crucial part of our financial and cultural well-being.

TOC: What can people expect if they attend Corpo/Ilicito?

GGP: It’s going to be a very wild performance. When audience members first come in, they’re going to find that the whole building is occupied with live art images. We’ve been developing a wide array of site-specific images for the performance. And then, when they reach the space, they will experience a high-energy interactive performance art piece. We’re using sound, video projection, multiple stages. A lot of the issues we’re discussing will emerge, but not in an explicit, thematic way: It follows an elliptical, poetic method.

La Pocha Nostra performs Friday 30 at 7pm at Columbia College (618 S Michigan Ave). Admission is free, but arrive early.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña premieres the performance piece Corpo/Illicito: The Post-Human Society #69 at Columbia College tonight, Friday 30, at 7pm.

In its new West Loop space, ebersmoore opens “Rob Carter: Stone on Stone” tonight from 6–9pm. In River North, Roy Boyd Gallery hosts a reception for “Brigitte Riesebrodt: Metamorphoses” Friday 30, 5–8pm.

Shannon Benine unveils “Means Without End” at the Chicago Photography Center Friday 30, 6:30–8:30pm.

Tomorrow, Saturday 31, the new Wicker Park “alternative gallery” Parking Space, which occupies an abandoned garage, highlights works by Michael Cheatwood, E.T. Chong, Dorian McKaie, Daniel Sullivan and Danny Tucker in “Helter Sculpture” at 4pm.

In the West Loop, Andrew Rafacz Gallery opens two shows Saturday 31, 4–7pm: “Jason Lazarus: Orion Over Baghdad” and “Daniel Rich: 1989–2009: Paintings of the Berlin Airports 20 Years after the Fall of the Wall.”

From 5–8pm, Rafacz’s next-door neighbor Kavi Gupta Gallery debuts Josh Azzarella’s “Untitled #100 (Fantasia),” a riff on the video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” and a collection of Scott Treleaven’s collages and films, “Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you.”

On Sunday 1, 1–2pm, Jason Lazarus visits the Spertus Museum for a talk about his new Ground Level Project, the video The top of the tree gazed upon by Anne Frank while in hiding (Amsterdam, 2008).

Sunday 1, 2–5pm, the South Side Community Art Center hosts both a release party for AREA #9: Peripheral Vision and a closing reception for “DEMISE,” a show featuring Theaster Gates, Dan S. Wang, Faheem Majeed and several other artists.

In Pilsen, Slow, another new alternative space, opens “For The Time Being” Sunday 1, 4–7pm, with photos, paintings, drawings and videos by Benjamin Bellas and C.C. Ann Chen.

East Garfield Park’s Julius Caesar hosts a reception for “Jason Hardwig: Seeds and Hitchhikers” Sunday 1, 4–7pm.

Thanks to Chicago Artists Month, there are more than 150 Art & Design events happening this weekend. Our slide show (above) offers a preview of this weekend’s new shows, but you’ll have to check the Art & Design listings for the complete schedule. The following events didn’t make it into print. Unless otherwise noted, they’re FREE.

Tonight (Friday 23), ebersmoore (formerly ebersb9) opens its new West Loop gallery space at 213 N Morgan St, no. 3C (312-772-3021, ebersmoore.com), with a closing reception for its “Group Painting Show” from 6–9pm. The show includes works by Amy Mayfield, Howard Fonda, Tyson Reeder, Sebastian Vallejo and Paul Wackers. A few blocks away, Brooklyn artist John Delk returns to Thomas Robertello Gallery with “Stream,” opening 5–8pm.

In West Town, Noble & Superior Projects opens “Double Fantasy,” featuring recent work by Ivan Lozano and Kate Brock, tonight from 6–10pm. At the Nightingale, Nicholas O’Brien and jonCates curate “Screen.Grab2,” a showcase of artists’ video and new-media work, and performances involving digital and analog computers and electronics, which starts at 8pm. ($5 suggested donation.)

On Saturday 24, the University of Chicago’s Humanities Day includes two art-related lectures by Christine Mehring and W.J.T. Mitchell. Stick around Hyde Park for Home Gallery’s new exhibition “Deedee Davis and Casey Roberts” from 6–9pm.

Albany Park’s Swimming Pool Project Space unveils photographs by San Francisco artists John Chiara and Sean McFarland Saturday 24, 6–10pm.

On the edge of Wicker Park and Humboldt Park, barbara&barbara gallery host “Trunk Show” Saturday 24, 7–10pm. Musical performances by Anna Vogelzang, Vintage Gramma, and Julia V. Hendrickson & Marie Barker (accompanied by Chris Gingrich) accompany 19 young artists’ responses to the themes “luggage, travel and place.”

On Sunday 25, there should be lots of great stuff to see from noon–7pm at the East Garfield Park Art Walk and Open Studios, which encompass the Switching Station Artist Lofts, Albany Carroll Artist Studios, West Carroll Artist Studios, 3311 Carroll Artist Building and Arthur Swirgon, Ltd.

Photos: Mike Novak

"It Is What It Is" installation view. Photo: Nathan Keay.

It’s hard to look away from the car—or rather, what used to be a car—lying in a first-floor gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), where “Jeremy Deller: It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” brings together Iraqi émigrés, American soldiers, schoolkids and surprised tourists six days a week.

Caught in a March 2007 bombing in Baghdad, the car is now a rusted, twisted hunk of metal. It could be mistaken for an abstract sculpture if not for the photographs surrounding it: One shows Al Mutanabbi, the street where the bombing took place, some time before the incident—when it was thronged with booksellers. Another photo captures the street just after the bombing: Two rescue workers scream for help amid heaps of charred rubble.

Deller’s counterpoint to the car is a set of cushy white chairs and cushions surrounding a low table. The English artist, who implemented this project at museums in New York and Los Angeles earlier this year, wants experts on Iraq to engage museum visitors in a dialogue about the region. MCA curator Tricia Van Eck and curatorial fellow Diana Nawi coordinated an impressive roster of local presenters, including Donny George Youkhanna, former director of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad, and Maj. Tammy Duckworth, an official in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs who served in Iraq and ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. Esam Pasha, a Connecticut-based Iraqi artist and translator, will also speak several times during the next two weeks.

When we attended a few “Conversations About Iraq” last week, curatorial staff served tea and Middle Eastern sesame-seed cookies while facilitating discussions with the experts and visitors. Some people hover briefly but don’t sit down; others stay for hours. “One of our speakers, [Iraqi-American filmmaker] Usama Alshaibi, says this is the Iraqi thing to do,” Nawi explains. “You invite someone to share sweets and tea with you.”

Cookies defuse tension remarkably well. Though a conversation with Chuck Tucker grows testy as it turns to U.N. sanctions and American bombings in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, Tucker, the executive director of DePaul University’s International Human Rights Law Institute—and a former judge advocate general who retired from the Air National Guard as a major general—doesn’t lose his composure. Maj. Brad Leighton, the Illinois National Guard’s director of public affairs, politely answers our questions about the deaths of Iraqi civilians and chats comfortably with Lina Ganawi, who founded a construction company in her native Baghdad. Tucker and Leighton both lament that members of the military share less and less “common space [and] common language,” as Tucker puts it, with those who aren’t in the armed forces.

Pasha—who moved to the U.S. in 2005, and participated in a summer 2009 road-trip version of “It Is What It Is” with Deller and Sgt. Jonathan Harvey, an Iraq War veteran—tries to describe what everyday life is like back home. “Since 1991, we’ve had either an air raid or a bomb every single day in Iraq,” he tells us. “[In the U.S.], you take it for granted that when you turn on the faucet, water will come out. When you hit the switch on the wall, the electricity turns on. In Iraq, it hasn’t been like that for the longest time. The major thing in Iraqi life is uncertainty.”

Even our brief exposure to “It Is What It Is” shakes up our beliefs about the U.S. military, the 2003 invasion and current events in Iraq, though our conviction that Americans—ourselves included—are shamefully ignorant about other cultures stands. “What I’ve learned most from this experience is that America wants to make things simple, and issues are extremely complex,” Van Eck says. It’s clear to her, however, that Americans hunger for more accurate information about Iraq than we’ve received during the past seven years. “Here’s an opportunity to have a first-hand experience,” she adds, “to talk to someone.”

“Jeremy Deller: It Is What It Is—Conversations About Iraq” runs through November 15 at the MCA. The schedule of speakers, and speaker biographies, are available at mcachicago.org/deller.