These days, I’m sadly able to glide through most exhibitions without a scratch. Skimming wall text, glancing from piece to piece—I’m rarely arrested by art. But Rana Begum’s Reflection shattered every one of these bad habits.

Curator Juliet Bingham’s Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind arrived in the United States at an interesting time. When it opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago in mid-October, hundreds of Illinois National Guard members were in the process of mobilizing, after President Trump described the city as a “haven for criminals” and a “warzone.”

Sometimes, art tells you what it means to say plainly—in our world of small screens and short attention spans, that kind of art certainly has its place. Livien Yin’s dynamic and individual use of oil on linen, however, resists the temptation to gloss over fine distinctions and instead insists on particularity.

Earlier this summer, New York-based sculptor and activist Jordan Weber stood before a small crowd on a corner lot in East Canfield Village, just five miles outside downtown Detroit. Beside him sat Kim Theus, co-founder of Canfield Consortium, a local nonprofit committed to community development that Weber worked alongside to complete his latest large-scale permanent installation, New Forest, Ancient Thrones (2024), which towered behind him.