Expo Chicago returns to Navy Pier this weekend, bringing art from around the globe and amplifying the city’s status as a destination for artists, gallerists and collectors. There is much to see — 170 galleries from 93 cities and 36 countries.

The new LP “Johnny Iguana – At Delmark” includes standards such as Junior Wells’ “Messin’ With the Kid” and unexpected tunes like Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” and AC/DC’s “Riff Raff” — all instrumental and all on piano.

Archival record label Numero Group pays homage to the practice of music discovery while aiming to give new life to music that may have previously flown under the radar. For more than two decades, the label has reissued music and chronicled the stories of artists across a wide range of genres.

Elena Diadenko aids the war effort in her native country. When she isn’t teaching she raises funds through art-related events — although now she has a heightened sense of urgency due to the new administration in Washington DC.

“I make the work so people feel seen and cared about and have a voice,” Kenn Cook Jr. said. “That’s what the work is — I just amplify the voice of people who live here and give them a chance to tell their own story, not letting that story be written for them.”

While recovering from open heart surgery in 2021, Chicago-based artist Shar Coulson experienced trippy visions that ultimately shaped her artwork.

Beat the January blahs with some blues — or a prize-winning play or an art show. In a few months when everyone is complaining about the heat, you’ll recall that time in the dead of winter when you bundled up and defied the season.

If you’ve never been to the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, now is an opportune time to go on a cultural expedition. The museum’s third floor gallery is currently filled with “beLONGING: Lithuanian Artists in Chicago — 1900 to Now.”

WTTW News interviewed Steve Albini on Aug. 30, 2001, for the “Artbeat Chicago” series. He was 39 years old and already a legend. As a recording engineer, he had recorded Nirvana, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, the Breeders, the Pixies and PJ Harvey. As a musician, he made his mark with the bands Big Black and Shellac.

On Aug. 30, 2001, Steve Albini was 39 years old and already a legend. As a recording engineer, he had recorded Nirvana, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, the Breeders, the Pixies and PJ Harvey. As a musician, he made his mark with the bands Big Black and Shellac.

Each week, WTTW News arts correspondent Marc Vitali highlights the city’s can’t-miss cultural events. May your holidays be joyful and artful!

“Letters Beyond Form: Chicago Types” is a modestly scaled but ambitious exhibition currently occupying the Design Museum of Chicago on Randolph Street across from the Chicago Cultural Center.

Mariam Paré is part of a small community of people who paint with their mouths or feet. Paré was an aspiring art student when a 1996 shooting left her quadriplegic. “I wasn’t ready to change everything that I wanted to be,” Paré said.

Chicago has a pair of newly minted geniuses. Multimedia artist Ebony G. Patterson and fiction writer Ling Ma are among 22 scientists, artists and scholars who have been awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship.

A new mural is set to be unveiled at the Chicago Public Library’s Uptown Branch across the street from the now closed Gherkin Records.

The 60th annual Chicago International Film Festival runs Oct. 16-27. Screenings and programs are set to take place at the festival’s hub theater in AMC NEWCITY 14 in addition to the Music Box Theatre, the Gene Siskel Film Center and more.