Chicago, IL, December 16, 2023 – ANDREW RAFACZ is thrilled to announce the reopening of the gallery with Nocturne, a survey exhibition in two parts presenting more than 30 painters responding to the idea of night painting.

The first part of the exhibition opens Saturday, December 16th and continues through Wednesday, January 17, 2024. The second part of the exhibition opens Friday, January 19th and continues through Saturday, February 17, 2024. The exhibition will occupy both galleries.

Coined by James Abbott McNeill Whistler in the 19th Century, Nocturne Painting describes scenes evocative of the night or subjects as they appear in a veil of light, in twilight, or in the absence of direct light. In broader usage, the term has come to refer to any ‘nighttime’ painting portraying a pensive and still mood, capturing that ineffable quality that characterizes night.

Nocturne aims to reconsider and expand the idea of night painting from a multitude of contemporary perspectives and concerns – formally, conceptually, metaphorically, narratively, ontologically, politically, and ecologically – to name a few.

Part I of the exhibition presents works by Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson, Christina Ballantyne, Cindy Bernhard, Robert Burnier, Dorian Fitzgerald, Will Gabaldón, Milford Graves, Adam Henry, Cody Hudson, Richard Hull, Minami Kobayashi, Erin Lawlor, Ish Lipman, Soumya Netrabile, Celeste Rapone, Daniel Rich, Kayla Risko, and Norman Zammitt. Part II of the exhibition includes works by Scott Marvel Cassidy, Josh Dihle, Jenal Dolson, Jessie Edelman, Laura Findlay, Justin John Greene, Annie Hémond Hotte, Jin Jeong, Yowshien Kuo, Julio Le Parc, Nour Malas, Lyndsey Marko, Danielle Orchard, Emil Robinson, Madeleine Leplae, Michelle Wasson, and Emma Welch. A full-color catalogue will be published in 2024.

• Regan Dockery, ‘Nighttime Departures: A Review of “Nocturne” at Andrew Rafacz Gallery’, NewCity, December 21 2023