The Best Exhibitions in Chicago This Weekend

David Antonio Cruz, ‘One Day I'll Turn the Corner and I'll Be Ready for It’
David Antonio Cruz’s crushingly beautiful exhibition draws on the stories and images of queer and trans people of colour who have suffered abuse related to their identity, transforming images from the internet and social media into elegant portraits that emphasize his subjects’ humanity. Borrowing from the canon of the accepted and the aspirational – the classical poses of old masters; the haughty, luxe rightness of fashion editorials – Cruz imbues his subjects with dignity and power. Echoing the importance colour plays in their lives – in all our lives – the artist works in a coded palette, ensuring everything within the frame, down to the plant life of his subjects’ homes, speaks of and about them.