Best of 2015: Critics' Picks Edition
Installation view, The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, MCA Chicago, Jul 11—Nov 22, 2015
Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA ChicagoAs 2015 comes to an end, critics all over the world are busy making their “Best of” lists covering everything from art to food recipes. We've compiled the critics' top picks of the MCA in 2015 for you here so you'll have more time reading up on recipes for that New Year's party you're planning.
1.
Describing the exhibition as “buoyant, democratic, intricate and very, very loud,” we were thrilled to see The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Music and Art, 1965 to Now, come in at #1 on “The best American art shows of 2015” in the UK's Guardian.
2.
Doris Salcedo made the lists of both Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith in The New York Times, though each cited the Guggenheim presentation of the exhibition.
3.
Artist Jessica Stockholder selected her “Best of Chicago, 2015” for Art in America including Kathryn Andrews: Run for President and The Freedom Principle.
4.
Performances on MCA Stage made a number of lists in 2015, too. On the Windy City Times, Lauren Warnecke called the presentation of The Seldoms's Power Goes “Stunning,” and on the Chicago Tribune Laura Molzahn selected Ragamala Dance's Song of Jasmine, noting that “Women had an outsized role on this year's list.”
5.
Also on the Chicago Tribune, critic Lori Waxman selected the John Cage-inspired Child of Tree installation currently on view in eighth blackbird's artist in residency gallery and William Pope.L's marathon performance Cage Unrequited, as well as the recent appointment of Omar Kholeif as our Manilow Senior Curator.
6.
Newcity’s “Top 5 of Everything” edition had a number of MCA mentions including Doris Salcedo and The Freedom Principle, but also selected MCA Prime Time as “Best Night Art Crawls” and the MCA itself as one of the “Top 5 Chicago Design Institutions.”