Chicago-based artist Jennifer Cronin, a native of Oak Lawn, has opened her first solo museum exhibition at the Vanderpoel Art Museum, marking a significant milestone in her two-decade career. The exhibition launched on Saturday, September 27, as part of the Beverly Art Walk, a neighborhood celebration of art and music organized by the Beverly Area Arts Alliance.
The show features a comprehensive collection of Cronin's work spanning 20 years, including portraits, landscapes, and narrative paintings that demonstrate her evolution from intimate domestic scenes to bold social commentary and her latest "magical landscapes." All pieces are rooted in realism while remaining open to experimentation, showcasing her distinctive approach to making the ordinary appear mysterious and worth deeper consideration.
"This is such a meaningful milestone for me," Cronin said. "To have a solo show at a museum, in the neighborhood where I grew up, feels like everything has come full circle." The exhibition runs through October 19 and represents the culmination of her artistic journey from her early days studying painting and art education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Cronin's artistic philosophy centers on the idea that broken glass on a table and a sewing machine in a corner don't need to explain themselves – that's precisely the point. For her, art has always been about discovering depth in everyday objects and moments. Her 2006 painting "Grace," a portrait of her sister surrounded by objects that hint at untold stories, exemplifies this approach that she has maintained throughout her career.
Early in her career, Cronin drew inspiration from her immediate surroundings. "Early in my career, I took inspiration from my everyday domestic life," she explained. "I loved creating narrative tableaus – someone washing up in the bathroom, or whipping up something mysterious in the kitchen." These intimate scenes established her reputation for finding the extraordinary within the mundane.
After college, her artistic focus expanded dramatically to address broader social issues. She created stark black-and-white studies of foreclosed houses across Chicago, documenting structures abandoned during the housing crisis. "I wanted to draw attention to homelessness and income inequality," Cronin said. "The houses themselves were silent witnesses and documenting them was my way of asking people not to look away."
Her commitment to social commentary took her even further from home when she traveled to Newtok, Alaska, to paint a village threatened by climate change. This experience proved transformative for her artistic vision. "Surrounded by reminders of pain and injustice, I realized I needed my work to take on a new role," she reflected. "I wanted it to provide not just reflection, but also inspiration and hope."
This realization led to her most recent and perhaps most striking body of work – what she calls "magical landscapes." These pieces reimagine ordinary elements like sidewalks, fences, and neighborhood corners with bursts of neon colors, surreal imagery, and an unmistakable sense of enchantment. The transformation in her work was partly inspired by the pandemic experience.
"I started taking daily walks during the pandemic," Cronin said. "It forced me to slow down, to notice the beauty hiding in plain sight. A fence, a shadow, a burst of leaves – suddenly they felt like portals into another world." This shift represents her evolution from confronting loss to celebrating what remains beautiful in the world around us.
One of her newest works, "Pieces of It Everywhere," perfectly demonstrates this new direction. The painting takes a mundane fence and transforms it with pink and green auras, while leaves shimmer with neon edges and parts of the fence dissolve into cartoon-like shapes. "It's both otherworldly and very much of this world," she said. "It reminds me – and I hope others – that there's still magic in this place we call home."
The Beverly exhibition strategically places early works like "Grace" alongside these recent magical landscapes, creating a visual narrative of her journey from psychological drama through social commentary to quiet wonder. This curation allows visitors to witness her artistic evolution and understand how her core philosophy of finding depth in the everyday has remained constant even as her methods and subjects have transformed.
"I've always been interested in realism as a means to an end," Cronin explained. "Sometimes that means confronting what we're losing, and sometimes it's about celebrating what we have." This philosophy underlies all her work, whether she's painting intimate family moments, documenting social injustice, or creating fantastical interpretations of neighborhood scenes.
Beyond this solo exhibition, Cronin's career continues to gain momentum. She is represented by Elephant Room Gallery in Chicago and will have her work featured at Aqua Art Fair during Miami Art Week in December. "This moment feels like a launching pad," she said. "I'm proud of where I've been, but I'm even more excited about what's ahead."
