CHICAGO, IL.- Weinberg/Newton Gallery announced that the exhibition, Anthem (formerly titled If we do not now dare everything), is being presented online and in the gallery’s storefront windows. Available for viewing here through Saturday, Dec. 19., the exhibition is presented in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union and examines voting rights in the United States of America through the works of contemporary artists Bethany Collins, Jaclyn Conley, Eve L. Ewing, Mike Gibisser, Naima Green, Ellen Rothenberg and Sanaz Sohrabi.

Planned to coincide with the 2020 election cycle and the November presidential election, Anthem looks past partisan divisiveness and focus on the issue of voting as a fundamental right. Curated by Weinberg/Newton Gallery Co-Director Kasia Houlihan, the works on view in the exhibition examine familiar emblems of American patriotism, along with experiences of collective identity and acts of resistance. Four poems by sociologist, author, poet and Chicago native Eve L. Ewing are included. A window installation by Ellen Rothenberg, viewable in the gallery storefront from Milwaukee Avenue, showcases historical and contemporary images related to the voting rights movement in the U.S. over the past two centuries. Rothenberg’s installation continues online, where visitors will be able to click and discover related supplementary media. Anthem will also be updated throughout the run of the show, with Naima Green contributing regular installments of Open Tabs Piece (2020).




Visitors are able to leaf through America: A Hymnal (2017) by Bethany Collins, a book bound and executed in the likeness of a shape note hymnal, comprised of 100 different versions of My Country ‘Tis of Thee written over the past two centuries. In its many lyrical variations, which alternately espouse temperance, suffrage, abolition and even the confederacy, America: A Hymnal is a chronological retelling of American history, politics and culture through one song.

The various mythologies ascribed to political leaders - their likenesses as well as their legacies - are also scrutinized. In two new works, Canadian painter Jaclyn Conley grapples with an inability to integrate imagery of the idyllic American life with the ever present coverage of national conflicts and internal divisions. Viewers are able to closely explore the texture of these paintings and gain insight into the artist’s process. A video essay by Sanaz Sohrabi, Notes on Seeing Double (2018), characterizes the public as a collective corpus and weaves together observational footage with historical images, wavering between imagination, fiction and reality.

Two video works by Mike Gibisser offer moving portraits of civic identity across the Midwest. With nighttime long exposures, Blue Loop, July (2014) documents Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, both a historical and modern-day immigrant community, as it celebrates America’s independence on July 4. In Travel Stop (2018) the artist contemplates the interiors of the world’s largest truck stop in Walcott, Iowa, and the familiar American backdrop of travel and transience.

“We are honored to partner with the ACLU at this critical juncture in the history of our country as they fight against efforts to curtail our constitutional rights, and hope that the platform we offer can bring this issue to the attention of a wider public,” said Weinberg/Newton Gallery Executive Director David Weinberg. “The shift to a mostly virtual exhibition is an opportunity for us to reach new audiences and consider new modalities of access.”