What’s dark, magnetic and draws you in to an irresistible fate? Lend us your ears and your attention; from the first breach of stillness you’ll be captivated and ensnared. Find how a room’s resonance and the very vibrating of your cells will alter your soul and remake you anew. These bands use alchemical magics to transport from the mundane to the extraordinary:

EVE’s UNDOING - with a dark streak to cajole and bemuse your inner critic.
The BROOM PEOPLE - Chicago’s own magical Mountain Goats cover band.

Join the artists from the Decayging Exhibition to talk about their creative process and the context of their work in a show about life & death. AND other artists invited to submit your work for critique too: Agitator Gallery invites artists to present work to be critiqued by a group of your peers. Up to 6 artists will display artworks to the group who are invited to observe, analyze and discuss the artworks. Artists have 15-20 minutes to introduce their work, answer questions and receive feedback. Critique sessions are a great opportunity to workshop your ideas and get input.

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: sliding scale $12 - $20

Agitator puppeteer Wendy Madrigal & sculptor Alonso Galue guide a workshop designed to assist participants in building puppets, masks & costumes for ritual performance. Wendy and Alonso present a puppet play and absurdist march around the gallery neighborhood on the Day of the Dead (Nov 1st) during a night of performance, music and poetry of Death.

The Chicago Noise / Free Jazz Orchestra is an experiment. By intention there is no one prescribed way the orchestra will function. Musicians arrive by 6:30pm for refreshments and set up. We start at 7:30pm and finish up around 10:30pm. The conductor sets the rules. Tommy Carrol, famed Chicago jazz drummer and band leader has agreed to be the conductor for this event. Free jazz and noise musicians are invited to participate. Bring your own amps, cables, extension cords, and power strips.

This symposium invites cultural commentators and death activists/experts to examine mortality and share their thoughts on its power and impact in our contemporary moment—as well as propose new ways of engaging the premise and practice of our death from more sustainable and constructive perspectives. Looking at death conversely asks viewers to consider what is the meaning and value of (a) life. See how these presenters grapple with the concept of our “decayging” and present new life—& DEATH!—affirming models of addressing, engaging, architecting our own mortality.

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: sliding scale $12-$20

Funerary and death-marking have been a part of human cultural, civic and religious traditions throughout time. The memento mori has been a recurring tradition in art making. The exhibit, Decayging, invites creative artists, cultural commentators and death activists to examine mortality and share their thoughts on its power and impact in our contemporary moment—as well as propose new ways of engaging the premise and practice of our death from more sustainable and constructive perspectives. Looking at death conversely asks viewers to consider what is the meaning and value of (a) life. See how these artists and performers engage the concept of mortality.

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: $12-$20

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: sliding scale $12 - $20

Join the artists for the closing of this exhibit. Beyond just shape, form, color and gesture, the work in this show engages in a larger dialog about issues and ideas important to the artist. The art’s message matches, mirrors and surmounts the aesthetics of the visual image. Work was selected that addresses politics and philosophy, symbols and language, history and religion, location and geography, and other ideas that challenge convention.

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: sliding scale $12 - $20

The Chicago Noise / Free Jazz Orchestra is an experiment. By intention there is no one prescribed way the orchestra will function. Musicians arrive by 6:30pm for refreshments and set up. We start at 7:30pm and finish up around 10:30pm. The conductor sets the rules. Tommy Carrol, famed Chicago jazz drummer and band leader has agreed to be the conductor for this event. Free jazz and noise musicians are invited to participate. Bring your own amps, cables, extension cords, and power strips.

Agitator Gallery invites artists to present work to be critiqued by a group of your peers. In one evening up to 6 artists will display artworks to others who are invited to observe, analyze and discuss the artworks. Artists will have 15-20 minutes to introduce their work, answer questions and receive feedback. These critique sessions are a great opportunity to workshop your ideas and get input as you develop existing or new pieces.

$15 donation encouraged to support gallery operating costs. To participate contact Agitator member Alex Wilson at AudioImageChicago@gmail.com. Include your name, description of the work and jpeg picture files of it.

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: $12-$20

Beyond shape, form, color and gesture, the work in this show expresses concepts that engage in a larger dialogue about issues and ideas important to the artists. The messages match, mirror and surmount the aesthetics of the visual image with subtext and contexts that address politics and philosophy, symbols and language, history and religion, location and geography, and other themes that challenge convention.

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: $12-$20

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: $12-$20

In her solo exhibit, A Través De La Pantalla, the painter Kaelyn Andrade looks at how women—especially Latinas—use social media to share their real, messy, and powerful selves. Through art, she explores identity, family, and the freedom to express who we are online. Like a feed, you can “like” pieces and leave your own thoughts.

The Chicago Noise / Free Jazz Orchestra is an experiment. By intention there is no one prescribed way the orchestra will function. Musicians arrive by 6:30pm for refreshments and set up. We start at 7:30pm and finish up around 10:30pm. The conductor sets the rules. Tommy Carrol, famed Chicago jazz drummer and band leader has agreed to be the conductor for this event. Free jazz and noise musicians are invited to participate. Bring your own amps, cables, extension cords, and power strips.

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: sliding scale $12-$20

The closing is your last chance to see this solo exhibition of the artist’s paintings. Sofía Saavedra is a Venezuelan artist who—in this solo exhibition—has presented paintings and other works that celebrate human diversity and approach identity(ies) in dynamism, transit, and transformation. The exhibit features her large, colorful canvases with humans & animals interwoven in allegorical and symbolic tableaus..

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: $12-$20

We strive to offer as wide a range of figure models as possible, to reflect the fact we live in a very diverse society. Beginners and attendees without prior figure drawing experience are welcome. Feel free to ask the session monitors for guidance and advice. We’ve got basic drawing materials to share too! Donations: sliding scale $12-$20

STOP MOTION PLANT is the 2025 Artist in Residence at Agitator Gallery. They are hosting a monthly PROPAGATION LAB to offer open studio time to share ideas, create community and work on projects together. Just like their Salon Series, the Propagation Labs are masks required (to keep all safe). Join us, meet new people, make new art and have fun! Free to join in

See this solo exhibition of artworks by Sofía Saavedra a Venezuelan artist who considers painting a ritualistic act of healing. Her work aims to celebrate human diversity, which she prefers to approach as identities in dynamism, transit, and transformation. Since the beginning of her career, she has “read” identity considering its nomadic and mutant qualities. Nomadism and mutation are liminal states—moments of generative ambiguity that bring crisis and change.

This workshop is for anyone who has ever wanted to learn what different pedals sound like & wants to experiment with them. Meet other folk who love making distortion/feedback and being noisy!
Loopers / Pitch Shifters / Distortion / Overdrive / Reverb and echo / Other magical stuff

~Also: Learn how to build a contact microphone and a noise box for super cheap! 3 lucky participants will leave with noise boxes assembled in the workshop.

GALLERY HOURS in the last days of the exhibit open for the public. Come collab w/ STOP MOTION PLANT: Creating Space, Cultivating Community. The exhibit follows the evolution of the collective throughout the years as they've dug into the exploration of community building, experimenting with DIY theater in a multitude of audiences, media and venues.