Here are this week’s picks on what to see this weekend. As always, more and other listings can be found here and here.

Deborah Stratman @ Gahlberg Gallery

Chicago artist and film-maker Deborah Stratman has installed a gallery converting installation combining improvisational architecture and booming, disorienting sound at the Gahlberg Gallery in Glen Ellyn. I strongly recommend coming out to see it, though I admit I swung a hammer on the installation team. The opening reception is Thursday, September 2nd from 6 – 8 PM @ Gahlberg Gallery, 425 Fawell Blvd, Glen Ellyn. Also on view are paintings from Raychael Stine.

Deborah Stratman

Patricia Treib @ GOLDEN

Golden is hosting New York painter Patricia Treib for her first Chicago solo show. The paintings look nice, and both her big canvasses and smaller works on paper will be on display.You can catch it Friday, September 3rd from 6 – 9 PM @ GOLDEN, 816 W Newport Ave. Golden’s new aux space will also be holding a show on that same night, featuring more NYC work from artists Richard Aldrich, Jessica Dickinson, Josephine Halvorson, Erik Lindman and Eric Palgon. That show opens at 9 PM @ 3319 N Broadway St.

Patricia Treib, Untitled

Ben Russell @ Museum of Contemporary Art

A new month means a new UBS 12×12 at the MCA, and this time around is Ben Russell, well known for his work in video as well as his Pilsen gallery space. Russell’s show will incorporate a site-specific video installation of his seven-part Badlands National Park LSD trip report. The show opens Saturday, but there is also a reception on Friday, September 3rd at 6:00 PM @ the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago Ave.

Ben Russell, Trypps #7 (Badlands)

Todd Chilton and Mike Peter Smith @ Slow

New-geo surfacey painter Chicago painter Todd Chilton pairs up with New York sculptor Mike Peter Smith for a compare and contrast show this month at Slow gallery. I’m looking forward to seeing how Peter Smith’s (excellent) doom and paradise sculptures meet up with Chilton’s disrupted canvasses. Show opens on Saturday, September 4th from 6 – 9 PM @ Slow, 2153 W 21st St.

Mike Peter Smith, Island

good luck!