Wicker Park Bucktown
First Fridays

First Fridays is a FREE, self-guided monthly art walk throughout Wicker Park and Bucktown. You will find exhibition openings, local artist pop-ups, artist talks, and more each month as you explore the map below.

When: Every First Friday of the month

The next is August 7th from 6 - 8 PM

Where: Check out the map below!

What's Going on at First Fridays?

Check out our lineup of local events and exhibition openings for First Friday on August 7th!

Jackson Junge Gallery

1389 N Milwaukee Ave

THE SENSUAL LAND: 50 YEARS OF BODYSCAPES

by Allan Teger

OPENING RECEPTION:

July 10th, 6 - 9 PM

Jackson Junge Gallery is proud to announce their second solo exhibition of the year, THE SENSUAL LAND: 50 YEARS OF BODYSCAPES, a retrospective and celebration of the career of artist Allan Teger. 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Teger’s beloved photography series BODYSCAPES. Having toured the US for many years showing in exhibitions and art festivals, with collectors across the country and internationally, you may recognize Teger’s work. What started with studio film photography in 1976 is now photographed digitally, but the spirit and process of the work remain the same. Utilizing nude models and toy miniatures, Teger’s BODYSCAPES transform the human form into a landscape straight from an alternate reality; one where tiny mountain climbers scale the facade of a breast and cross-country skiers glide across the curve of a back. Using precise lighting, Teger casts the lines and curves of the body into shadow, making them appear more like a natural landscape than a human body. These images range from subtle to recognizable nudes.

Flat Iron Arts Building

1579 N Milwaukee Ave

First Fridays at the Flat Iron!
6 - 9 PM

#204 Wondergem Studio: Photography of Leigha Wondergem

#228 Ian Smithdahl: Open Art Showroom

#304 Screams Everything Studio: Art made from things you throw away

#344 Phil Circle Music: First Friday Open Mic Jam

Guest Exhibitors: Zaza Maks, Jonathan Greenberg, and local painter George Zak

Tom Robinson Studio

2416 W North Ave

Join Tom for a ‘Closing Event’ for Tom Robinson Studio's 20th anniversary with complimentary wine tasting.

Also, be sure to peruse the dresses they will have for sale from Loralyn's Dress Closet Sale! All under $30!

Flatline Gallery

1925 N Milwaukee Ave

Plead, curated in collaboration with Dana Dawud

To Plead is to beg, testify, confess, perform sincerity, and ask to be believed. It is also a ritual act: a speech directed outward, toward an other. The works in Plead emerge from this compromised address, where identity is not simply expressed but externalized, encoded, and offered up.

The artists are not interested in authenticity as a return to some stable inner self. Rather, they work through the overproduction of selfhood: avatars, screenshots, selfies, cute/sexy/kawaii masks, and platform-native fragments.

Plead stages an ego death through the self. The self is not overcome by being stripped away, but by being pushed through too many surfaces, symbols, and iterations. Personality becomes impersonal. Persona breach into the expanded field. Painting, drawing, sculpture, and cinema appear not as life rafts for a dead internet, but as ritual technologies for handling its remains.

Plead gathers works that ask what kinds of sincerity survive inside insincerity, and what forms of selfhood must be exhausted before one can finally get outside oneself.

Featuring work by

Anthony Yew

Dana Dawud

Poorspigga

Safiya Hawwa

Anne-Joelle Tan

Machine Yearning

Ruby Bailey

Sheep Cult Comics

1632 N Milwaukee Ave

Blue Sphere is playing a free, all-ages show at Sheep Cult Comics from 7:30 - 9:00 PM!

MarioInk

1441 N Ashland Ave

First Friday Tattoo Special! $50/$100 flat rate, Black & Grey design! Tonight only!

Fine art, hand painted clothing, custom vinyl figures, jewelry.

First person in after 6 PM will get a free tattoo!

A Pied

1933 N Damen Ave

Karin K Tweedie is presenting her collage work!

SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art

1527 N Ashland Ave

Studio Sessions

SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art has teamed up with ENGAGE Projects artists for an exhibition titled “Studio Sessions” open until August 1st!

Featuring Artists:

Nick Albertson
bARBER
Matthew Girson
Noel Mercado
Margaret Welsh