Exhibitions
2025
One of the primary contributions the John David Mooney Foundation makes to the art community of Chicago is the Solo exhibitions hosted in our International Currents Gallery. Our visiting artists, who travel internationally from around the world, offer global perspectives and stories, told through the universal medium of art.
June - July
DIFFERENT LANGUAGES • ANCIENT MEMORIES
​Arvedo Arvedi
Italian Artist
From June 18th to July 2nd, 2025, we hosted Arvedo Arvedi, an Italian artist, in our International Currents Gallery.
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Thirty years after assisting John David Mooney on STAR DANCE for the Atlanta Olympics, Arvedo Arvedi returned to Chicago with an exhibition of his recent works.
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Decades after his contributions, he made his return to the city and foundation, which he considers a second home—this time, as a hosted artist.
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In DIFFERENT LANGUAGES • ANCIENT MEMORIES, Arvedo Arvedi unfolded the exhibition across four thematic sections, including a striking series of large-scale canvases representing the four elements (Fire, Air, Water, & Earth), the "Wall of Dancing Warriors" which featured over forty smaller works that come together to create a visually-stunning and cohesive display, and a dedicated space for his Arte da Vestige project: limited-edition pashmina scarves that merge fine art with design and storytelling.
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DIFFERENT LANGUAGES • ANCIENT MEMORIES was more than a return to Arvedo's "artistic home," it was a reconnection: to place, to memory, and to the essential role of art as a shred language in a world that's never been louder—or more disconnected.
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About the Artist:​​
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Of noble Veronese heritage, Count Arvedo Arvedi was raised in the family villa, where he cultivated a deep passion for the arts—fueled by ongoing cultural exchange with esteemed guests and renowned artists from Italy and abroad. In 1993, he developed an interest in American Pop Art and met internationally acclaimed artist John David Mooney in Chicago. This encounter sparked a decade-long collaboration on global art projects, culminating in this exhibition our foundation.
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In 2006, Arvedi relocated to Rome, where he worked alongside artist Massimo Catalani on La Casa dei Pesci, a project dedicated to protecting marine life by opposing the use of trawl nets.
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Arvedo's action-oriented technique, painting with hands, brushes, and pipettes, channels ancestral forms drawn from Hopi cave paintings, the Nazca lines, and Saharan rock engravings. The result is a powerful visual language that transcends borders and time, aiming not to ex-
plain, but to connect.
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In recent years, Arvedi has focused on 'corporate art,' partnering with prestigious brands to merge artistic expression with corporate identity. He currently serves as the corporate artist for Commodore Industries.
His work has been exhibited in major cities including Rome, Milan, New York, Chicago, Cannes, Venice, Matera, and Verona.
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May - June
Her Beasts
Nina Murashkina
Ukrainian Artist
From May 29th to June 1st, 2025, we hosted a show for Ukrainian artist, Nina Murashkina.
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Nina Murashkina is a multidisciplinary Ukrainian artist based in Spain.
Her bold, vivid aesthetic draws from Ukrainian naïve art, Indian and Japanese visual traditions, and ancient mythology.
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Murashkina describes her work as “delicious details from the subconscious and the extreme limits allowed in social relations.”
Her goddess-like heroines embody the dual nature of womanhood: both lustful and innocent, provocative and tender, brutally honest and mysteriously dark.
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“At the heart of my art is storytelling,” she says. “I build personal myths, where characters are interwoven in worlds shaped by Eros and Thanatos. Magical feminism defines my vision — I reinterpret reality through a mythical lens. The central figure is always the woman: a powerful force, a triumphant deity who can ride animals, wise men, or even the world itself.”
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From the Artist:​​
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"In this surreal series, Her Beasts, I channel the mystical energy of feminine symbolism that runs through all my work. The Beasts — a blue tiger, ghostly horses, moon-eyed cats — are not merely imagined creatures. They are living metaphors, surfacing from the depths of my subconscious like dreams on the edge of dissolving.
I work across several mediums: acrylic painting, delicate paper silhouettes, and graphic drawings. These techniques allow me to shift between density and lightness, presence and suggestion — much like the Beasts themselves, who move between the visible and the invisible. The layered textures and contrasts of materials reflect the emotional dualities I explore: vulnerability and strength, instinct and reflection.
Each Beast is both a challenge and a companion — a mirror veiled in mist, revealing the untamed, unspoken parts of the self.
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For the women who inhabit my painted worlds, the Beast becomes a rite of passage. Sometimes she is stilled by its presence, shaken by what it awakens in her. At other times, she rides it with fearless grace, carried through dreamscapes shaped by desire and fear.
The Beast is not something I aim to conquer. It’s a force I move with — wild, intimate, and transformative. In this ecstatic meeting of softness and savagery, a new kind of strength is born — luminous, inner, and wholly her own."
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MARCH - MAY
Lennart Anderson: A Retrospective
American Artist
From March 27th to May 2nd, 2025, we hosted a retrospective from acclaimed American artist Lennart Anderson.
Serving as the first time in our Foundation's history that we hosted an American artist in our International Currents gallery, this monumental show showcased one of the greatest talents of the 20th century, Lennart Anderson.
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Featuring over 30 of his essential works, this show served to honor a master craftsman. The celebration included a premier of a screening of Anderson's 1967 lecture at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture simultaneously in an adjacent gallery.​​
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The closing reception of the exhibition, held on May 1, featured a poetry reading from poet EJ Wade and a talk from critic/philosopher Deborah Fitzgerald. Both speakers shared their thoughts and writings inspired by the Lennart Anderson retrospective.
About the Artist
​​​​​Lennart Anderson (1928-2015) was an acclaimed American figurative painter known for his mastery of tone, color, and composition. This first major survey since his death features 32 works spanning over seven decades, coming from both public and private collections.
Described by the New York Times as a prominent painter who "translated figurative art into a modern idiom," Anderson was deeply influenced by Old and New Masters. Hilton Kramer succinctly wrote that Anderson was a “Degas of our time.”
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