1 Chicago Architecture Biennial (Chicago Cultural Center) The much-anticipated third edition of the CAB takes over the city with exhibitions focusing on architecture, design, urbanism, policymaking, research and the arts. Through January 2020
2 SOFA Chicago (Navy Pier) The design event of the year returns to Navy Pier to bring together three-dimensional art and design across multiple media—glass, ceramics, wood, fiber, jewelry, metal and sculpture. October 31-November 3
3 SOM “Stereoform Slab” (West Loop) During the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill builds a pavilion using advanced technology to explore ways to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete construction. Through January 2020
4 Setting the Stage: Objects of Chicago Theatre (Design Museum of Chicago) The Design Museum of Chicago celebrates the Year of Chicago Theatre with a showcase of fifty-six design objects from local theater companies—costumes, lights, props and sets. Through January 2020
5 Made in Chicago Market (Plumbers Hall) The city’s small businesses assemble to bring you a unique opportunity to shop local before the holiday frenzy begins. November 30, 10am-5pm
Greek-born Vasia Rigou is a Chicago-based art critic and pop culture journalist, largely on the subjects of contemporary art, design, and fashion. She moved to Chicago in 2013 to study Arts Journalism at the School of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC,) where she was awarded the New Artist Society Merit Scholarship. She grew up to appreciate art after years of carefully planned, culture-filled travel itineraries and museum-hopping around Europe with her family. During this time, she received a bachelor’s in English Literature, in her native Athens; a master’s in Media, in Nottingham, UK; and studied foreign languages—English, German, and Spanish at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her writing—reviewing museum exhibitions, gallery shows, art fairs, fashion shows, and music festivals among others—has been published nationally and internationally both in print and online. In 2017, she founded and now serves as editor-in-chief of Rainbowed.—an independently published website focused on the visual and performing arts, digital media, and popular culture. When she’s not writing about art or looking at art—wine in hand, she keeps up with Chicago’s creative entrepreneurial and startup community, makes lists for pretty much everything, drinks immense amounts of coffee and takes cross-country road trips every chance she gets.
