The exhibition commemorates the 2020 and 2023 iterations of Not Just Another Pretty Face. The triennial program, created by Hyde Park Art Center in the mid-1990s, introduces artists and potential art buyers. This project facilitates a fun and accessible commissioning process that builds lasting relationships between artists and patrons, creates a new base of support for artists, and invests in the vitality of Chicago’s cultural community.
Not Just Another Pretty Face cultivates collectors, who are essential to the “ecosystem” that artists need to thrive,by embracing and encouraging the concept of patronage in contemporary art. Artists need not only consumers (i.e. collectors,) but also a community of people who know, support, and value what they do.
To date, the Art Center has raised more than $1,000,000—half of which goes directly into the hands of artists, with the other half supporting Art Center programs. Through Not Just Another Pretty Face, 375+ original works of art have been commissioned by 275 new and established collectors interested in investing in Chicago’s artists.
Click below to learn more about the program:
Banner image: Detail of From Above: I-80 at rte 30, by Rubén Aguirre, commissioned by The Leahy Family, NLX Beverage Solutions, 2023, Spray paint and acrylic on wood panel, 48 x 288 x 1 ½ inches
