Over the period 1870 to 1945 the American West became an increasingly popular sketching ground for eastern artists. The first arrivals were view-painters like Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran whose panoramic paintings, reproduced as chromolithographs, brought the unimagined majesty of the Rockies and Sierras to a broad eastern audience. They were followed by reportorial artists such as Frederic Remington and the photographer Edward Curtis intent on preserving artistically and romantically the disappearing frontier and Native American culture.

This group of sculptures by Mark Handforth (British, b. Hong Kong 1969) initiates the MCA’s new commitment to blurring the lines between the inside and outside of the museum, enlivening Chicago with contemporary art beyond our opening hours. Activating the MCA plaza this summer, Handforth’s sculptures draw from the visual language of the city—lampposts, traffic cones, police hats—but also introduce surprising icons into the urban landscape, like the oversized coat hanger or gargantuan bone and phone handset.

Explore Nara's ancient Buddhist art and architecture.

Erin Hogan, director of public affairs, and Jill Bugajski, research associate, walk through and discuss the origins and themes of Windows on the War, an exhibition of Soviet TASS posters from World War II, which ran from July 31 to October 23, 2011. An extensive online archive of TASS posters and the exhibition can be found at www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/TASS

For his solo project at the Art Institute, Finch has created a solar-powered "lunar lander module" that uses energy from sunlight to power a geodesic dome-shaped object——a "buckyball" that resembles the carbon molecules named for visionary architect Buckminster Fuller——positioned on top of the lander. Installed on the open-air Bluhm Family Terrace, Lunar will glow during the evening hours the color of moonlight——the exact light measured from the full moon over Chicago in July 2011. On glow through April 8, 2012.

Invited by the Hammer to participate in our Artist Residency Program, VanDerBeek spent several weeks in Los Angeles over the past year. The works included in her Hammer Project have grown out of this residency and offer a particular view into our city. After she finished her installation in the vault gallery at the museum, we spoke with her about this project.

Exclusive Episode #146: In her Beijing studio, Cao Fei discusses the inspirations, process, and challenges behind developing and building a virtual urban environment within the digital realm of Second Life for her project, "RMB City" (2007). Comparing the virtual landscape of "RMB City" to the styles of traditional Chinese brush paintings, Cao draws connections between the past and the present, Eastern and Western cultures, and aesthetic sensibilities developed from her upbringing.

At once grand and subtle, Spencer Finch’s light-based installations bridge an actual locale with a recalled memory. Rather than depict a scene’s physical contours, Finch evokes the moment and mood of a place by controlling the quality of light, color, or other sensory information. In this way, he translates one physical experience into an analogous aesthetic incident.