City Walk #14: River North Gallery District

We had a little time to kill on this beautiful Saturday and decided to break out the City Walk deck and try one that was close(r) to home for us.  This time around we did #14, which winds through a little pocket of River North around a few of the art galleries.  Of course a few of them were closed and of course we also weren't dressed appropriately to tour high end galleries, but it's a beautiful neighborhood to walk with some great galleries to peek into.

 The starting point on the agenda was one that we were able to take full advantage of: Paper Source (1) at Chicago and Franklin.  Alex wanted to pass right by, but I insisted that we "quickly" pop in.  A half hour and $50 worth of paper goods later we were back on our way to stop #2.

Stop #2 was the Alan Koppel Gallery and it was also a bit of a bust.  That's me in front of a now vacant gallery space for lease.  That's one of the things that we love about the City Walks.  You never know when you're going to show up at a recommended stop only to find out it no longer exists.  I also love that they describe this gallery as "one of the more established galleries here."  Ha.

 Moving down N. Wells Street, our next stop was the Carl Hammer Gallery, specializing in nontraditional art (3) and then Manifesto (4) across the street, which carries some really unique and really expensive furniture pieces.  After that we swung by Maya Polska (5), which carries Russian art.

Next up was Luminaire (6), a huge three-story story specializing in contemporary upscale home elements.  Architech (7) was across the street and I was SO disappointed that they were closed.  They carry architectural art pieces, historic blueprints, lithographs, etc.  A perfect (and surely, still unaffordable) place for us to visit.  We finished up the Walk at Printworks (8), another great store that sells unique original drawings and other fine works on paper.