Ellen Lustig & Elena Smolynets
Gallery Talk
January 17, 2026
Ellen Lustig and Curator Elena Smolynets discuss Lustig's multifaceted creative force spanning from childhood to the present day. The showcase includes drawing, painting, sculpture, and more. Highlights include her Surreal Tree Paintings, oil works revealing anthropomorphic qualities in nature; Abstract Illusion Paintings, spontaneous landscapes evoking music and motion; and Zofscape, a multimedia installation combining LED light sculptures, animated video, and original music composition.
UIMA Members Party
December 6, 2025
UIMA Members Party: a warm and joyful evening filled with conversation, laughter, and inspiration — a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, and celebrate the vibrant community that makes UIMA so special. This evening, we want to celebrate you and express our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support.
After Line, Before Form Exhibition Tour
December 9, 2025
After Line, Before Form explores the moment when a point becomes a line, and a line transforms into a shape, tracing the liminal spaces between them and the threshold where line gives rise to form—where movement and perception bring form into being. Featuring works by artists from Ukraine, the Ukrainian diaspora, and other international contexts, the exhibition considers geometry as both a physical structure and an imaginative order. Across painting, print, and sculpture, the exhibition reflects on how line and form engage one another to create depth, rhythm and meaning—revealing abstraction as an intuitive dialogue between imagination and reality. Each artist interprets line and form in distinct ways, inviting viewers to encounter the varied possibilities of the liminal space and the shifting boundaries that separate—and connect—line and shape.
Scenes of the Neighborhood
December 9, 2025
Visitors will participate in a curator-led art walk in the unique and historic Chicago neighborhood of Ukrainian Village. Taking inspiration from the sights around them, participants are invited to photograph, draw, or write about their surroundings. Note, participants will need their own camera, phone, sketchbook, etc. Based on their experiences in the exhibition, viewers are encouraged to think about the mundane and banal, what catches their attention that they might have overlooked before. Subjects can range from buildings, to infrastructure, to plants, and anything else seen on the street. At the end of the walk, participants will be invited to speak about their experience and share their photographs or drawings with other participants and the curators. What did they notice? What caught their attention? How did they bring the unseen to light? After the discussion, visitors are invited to re-explore the exhibition with fresh eyes.
The Taste & Experience
of Ukraine & Lithuania
October 18, 2025
The Taste and Experience of Ukraine & Lithuania: Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in collaboration with the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, offer this Journey Chicago event as part of the Chicago Cultural Alliance’s month-long series of cross-cultural celebrations connecting Chicago’s diverse communities.
Discover the vibrant artistic heritage of both cultures through engaging hands-on workshops, including traditional Ukrainian glass painting and the beloved art of Ukrainian egg painting (pysanky). Experience the flavors that define these culinary traditions with authentic food tastings and live cooking demonstrations. Sample fresh varenyky, Ukraine's iconic dumplings, while witnessing a special cooking demonstration of Lithuanian Varsketukai by our partners at the Balzekas Museum. This cross-cultural exchange offers a unique opportunity to explore the shared histories and distinct traditions that connect these two Eastern European cultures.
Black Women and Clay Artist Talk
October 25, 2025
Sheila Clay, Francelia Herron Cotton, Kenya Moffett-Garner, Juarez Hawkins, Malika Jackson, Christine LaRue, and Cristal Sabbagh
The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art presents Black Women and Clay, an exhibition highlighting the remarkable yet often overlooked contributions of Black female ceramic artists in Chicago. Honoring pioneers like Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly and Eselean Goree Henderson while celebrating contemporary voices, the show traces connections to African ceramic traditions and global masters such as Ladi Kwali and Magdalene Odundo.
Entangled Expressions Artist Talk
August 16, 2025
Entanged Expressions: Exploring the Labyrinth of Linearity, brings together the distinctive visions of Victoria Fuller, Spencer Gale, and Deborah Newmark.
Entangled Expressions is an immersive journey into the realm of meandering and undulating lines, where art converges with the intricate patterns of nature, mathematics, and human expression. This exhibition features the captivating works of three visionary artists who ingeniously navigate the complexities of lines, knots, and entanglements, each employing a unique medium to articulate their profound explorations. Within this curated space, viewers encounter a myriad of forms and textures, woven together by the common thread of meandering lines. The interplay of light and shadow dances upon the surfaces, inviting contemplation and engagement.
UIMA Benefit Gala
June 21, 2025
The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) Annual Benefit Gala, Saturday, June 21, 2025, at the Institute's historic location. This elegant evening of art, culture, and community will feature a special live performance by the renowned Telnyuk Sisters, direct from Kyiv.
The gala begins with cocktails at 6:00 PM, followed by the main program at 7:00 PM. Guests will enjoy an unforgettable evening that celebrates Ukrainian artistic heritage while supporting UIMA's vital mission of preserving and promoting Ukrainian art and culture.
Our Story is One
February 15 - April 11,2025
Maryam Safajoo’s painting series on the persecution of Baha’is in Iran. Accompanied by artifacts of those imprisoned, they tell a powerful story of injustice and violence, paired with hope, resilience and survival. Maryam’s tempered color palette provides a subtle introduction to a subject of cruelty, a contrast allowing viewers to absorb its content with sad contemplation, rather than reactive shock. The latter’s prevalence in today’s media, has numbed many viewers’ sensitivity to similar subjects, toughened to seeing atrocities regularly.
Safajoo brings a deeply personal perspective to this exhibition. Her own family's experiences inform her intimate portrayal of the ongoing human rights violations against the Baha'i community in Iran since the 1979 revolution.
UIMA’S Photo Archive
Agency - Craft in Chicago September 21, 2024
"'Agency: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s-80s and Beyond,'" generously supported by the Terra Foundation through Art Design Chicago 2024. This exhibition aims to spotlight artists historically marginalized within mainstream art narratives, while acknowledging the enduring influence of white male dominance without excluding it entirely. Themes of colonialism, oppression, discrimination, and racism permeate societal structures and institutional art norms, positioning craft as an outsider within "high art."
Agency: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s-80s and Beyond is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
Weaving Stories Workshop September 29, 2024
As part of the larger series of weaving and community-building workshops, Weaving Stories, the goal of the individual workshop hosted by the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art is to facilitate community-building among visitors; not only through the physical practice of weaving, but more the metaphorical weaving of histories, experiences, and memory that occurs through the sharing of space and stories. Presented in partnership with The Jane Addams Hull-House, Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, and the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture with generous funding and support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, visitors to UIMA were encouraged to both weave on small hand looms as well as contribute to a collaborative tapestry woven on a loom that will travel among the four partner institutions.
UIMA Annual Gala
June 22, 2024
Another unforgettable evening at UIMA, filled with elegance, entertainment, and a chance to connect with friends and new acquaintances.