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
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
Check out Tom's wide array of works, including paintings, woodcuts, furniture, and more!
Flatline Gallery
1925 N Milwaukee Ave
Veilance Press in collaboration with Flatline presents After the Flood; sculptures from artists Chris Bradley, Milo Brown, Daniel H. Hoffmann, Willem Kusserow-Lair, Neiva M., Radu Nistoroiu, and David Sprecher. This collection coincides with the release of Issue 1: UN/NATURAL, a new publication by Veilance Press, and includes new work from artists featured in the issue.
Inspired by the Babirusa, a species of wild swine known and sensationalized for their long, curved tusks which–if not manually dulled–will eventually grow so that they pierce the skull in a natural suicide; Both the show and Issue 1 do not attempt to mimic nature, but are phenomena of nature and nature's contradictions. Like a silent wooden slab which becomes an instrument, or an adaptation which subverts its animal, nature turns back to reference itself with the circular effort cruelly demonstrated by the horns of the Babirusa.
Sheep Cult Comics
1632 N Milwaukee Ave
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
Public Works Gallery
2141 W North Ave
PLAY [007]
Fri. July 31st
Doors 8PM
Show 8:30PM
PLAY [007] returns with an evening dedicated to immersive electronic music and live experimentation
We’re honored to welcome @caroarroba whose music emerges from a live modular techno performance where unpredictability becomes part of the itself. Built through evolving patches, unstable textures, and spontaneous interactions between machines, she captures the tension between control and accident. Every modulation, sequence variation, and unexpected response from the system shapes the direction of the music in real time.
Joining her is @lets_hope_this_works a Chicago-based techno artist known for his contemplative approach to sound and understated presence behind the decks. As a curator and resident of both SWITCH/PROTOCOL and LOSSLESS, he continues to help cultivate spaces for adventurous electronic music throughout the city.
Nathaniel Pavel @nathaniel_pavel curator and DJ for SWITCH/PROTOCOL @switch_protocol_ and LOSSLESS, whose selections are rooted in quality sound, timeless rhythms, and creating meaningful experiences on the dance floor.
Heaven Gallery
1550 N Milwaukee Ave, #2
The Knot's United performance will begin at 8 PM opening night, July 31st.
Knots brings together artists who use tying, looping, weaving, binding, and repetition as both material process and metaphor. Across sculpture, fiber, found objects, mathematical systems, bodily forms, and participatory performance, the exhibition explores the knot as a structure of connection and tension—something that holds, protects, restricts, remembers, and transforms.
Long used as tools of survival, craft, and labor, knots carry rich symbolic meanings. They can signify the power of unity while also suggesting pressure, obligation, and entanglement. Requiring both control and release, knots embody tension, resiliency, and the potential to unravel. For some artists, knots emerge through systems of geometry and organic forms; for others, they speak to the joy of family, heritage and community, the challenge of migration and the anxiety that simmers beneath it all. Together, the works reveal how individual strands become larger networks of relationships, histories, and shared experience.
By foregrounding the knot as both form and metaphor, the exhibition invites viewers to consider the forces that bind us, the structures that sustain us, and what must be loosened, repaired, or reimagined.
Last Place on Earth
1526 N Ashland Ave
Creative clubhouse Last Place on Earth features their newest exhibition: “Outerbody”
And so many more!
