Roger Brown, Weather Map, 1981. © The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brown Family.
Join GRAY and moniquemeloche galleries for a cross-gallery program connecting the exhibitions Roger Brown: Weathervane at GRAY and Cheryl Pope: ALL THERE IS at moniquemeloche on May 16, 2026.
The afternoon will begin at GRAY with a walkthrough Roger Brown: Weathervane, introducing his vision of an emotionally charged contemporary life at the threshold between the built environment and the natural world. Led by artist Cheryl Pope and GRAY Senior Director Anastasia Tinari, the tour will explore how Roger Brown’s distinctive visual language continues to resonate with contemporary artists. Pope will also reflect on what drew her to Brown’s work, particularly his use of stacked horizons, simplified forms, and rhythmic patterning. Afterwards, the group will meet at moniquemeloche for a sit-down conversation between Ionit Behar, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Cheryl Pope around her new body of landscape works in ALL THERE IS. Working with needle-punched wool roving on cashmere, Pope creates richly tactile works that translate the language of painting into fiber, using material, texture, and color to explore memory, relationships, and the poetics of everyday life.
Together, these conversations invite consideration of how Chicago-based artists of different generations, both students and teachers at SAIC, cultivated singular practices, while revealing shared throughlines in their responses to the emotional and symbolic weight of land and sky.
2 PM: Roger Brown: Weathervane walkthrough with Cheryl Pope and Anastasia Tinari at GRAY
2:45 PM: Guests meet at moniquemeloche for sit-down conversation between Cheryl Pope and Ionit Behar
