September 2025 Issue: Art 50 + Fall Arts (Digital Edition)

Art 50 2025 Chicago's Artists' Artists It's a turbulent time in the art world, with high-profile gallery closings and art-fair hiatuses, in Chicago and beyond—all prompting a narrative of market decline. And that's on top of national and international trauma brought on by our political regime that is playing out, highly visibly, in our museums and the halls of academia. But none of this can stifle the extraordinary creative force of Chicago artists. The city and its environs are an ever-fertile ground for great art, a fact increasingly recognized by the so-called art establishment. (Brian Hieggelke) The Garment District's Last Stand Buddie Miller carries on his father's—and Chicago's once-thriving legacy Tucked among a smattering of bars, restaurants and boarded storefronts along the 200 block of South Wabash Avenue is the most curious of shops. A yellow sign juts out from its facade announcing FABRICS in red letters; a large cloth print of Bob Marley and a cardboard sewing button grac