Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Katie Anthony

Oprah Winfrey portrait, done by Chicago artist, unveiled at National Portrait Gallery

2023-12-13T17:18:35.254-06:00

Oprah Winfrey reacts as she and Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren, right, unveil Warren’s portrait of Winfrey on Wednesday at a ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

Associated Press

It seemed only fitting that Oprah Winfrey chose to wear a flowing, full-length purple dress for her portrait unveiled Wednesday at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

She told the assembled crowd that she wore purple not because a musical remake of the movie that launched her career is coming out later this month: “I chose to wear the color purple because for me, that color has been seminal in my life.”

As she pulled a curtain and saw the portrait by Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren for the first time, Winfrey exclaimed: “Spectacular. Great job.”

This wasn’t the first portrait Warren had completed of the Chicago icon — in 2020, he painted a towering black-and-white portrait of Winfrey in the West Loop at 855 W. Madison St.

That mural is about 300 feet long and 26 feet tall and centers Winfrey, who is surrounded by colorful shapes and florals. It also includes a magpie that serves as Winfrey’s “spirit animal.”

The mural at the Porte Apartments, 855 W. Madison St. in the West Loop, is all about Oprah Winfrey, who for years taped her syndicated talk show nearby. The mural is on the side of the building that faces Green Street, between Monroe and Madison.

Provided

When that piece was unveiled in Chicago, Winfrey applauded Warren’s work.

“When I saw it, it took my breath away,” Winfrey says in a 2020 video. “I was so impressed by Shawn Michael Warren’s artistry, the creativity, the way he was able to capture a feeling of hope and inspiration and strength.”

The painting in the Smithsonian shows Winfrey against the backdrop of a prayer garden at her home in California. She is holding a sprig from an olive tree.

Warren said he had asked Winfrey to consider how she wanted to be depicted for generations to come.

“You could have chosen anyone, but you saw fit that an artist from the place you called home during your rise to prominence should be given this honor,” he said.

“To my muse, Oprah, thank you for gracing me with the task of capturing your likeness and essence, and entrusting me as a creative to depict you in all your joy and regality,” Warren wrote in an Instagram post.

Winfrey said her role in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film “The Color Purple” served as a foundation for her future. She hosted “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for more than 25 years, after it was first broadcast nationally from the West Loop in 1986.

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

The National Portrait Gallery said in a statement that her contributions to popular culture and her philanthropy earned her a place at the museum.

“Through her rise to fame as host and producer of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ Oprah demonstrated an unparalleled ability to connect with people and inspire them to become the best versions of themselves,” said Kim Sajet, the gallery’s director.

The portrait is nearly 7 feet tall. It will be on display on the gallery’s first floor.

During her remarks, Winfrey put in a plug for “The Color Purple” movie coming out on Christmas Day. She is a producer of the film.

Get your tickets now, she said.

Chicago’s top Google searches of 2023

2023-12-12T15:58:43.156-06:00

Google on Monday released a list of topics that dominated global interest but also broke down searches locally.

Richard Drew/AP file photo

Google’s Year in Search 2023 provides a glimpse into what the world was thinking about throughout the year.

On Monday, the company released a list of the topics that dominated global interest but also broke down searches locally.

Here’s what was on Chicagoans’ minds.

Chicago’s top trending ‘versus’ searches

Mexico vs. Japan baseball
Vallas vs. Johnson
Mexico vs. Puerto Rico baseball
Mexico vs. Uzbekistan
PSG vs. Al Nassr score

Chicago was the only area in the U.S. with “Mexico vs. Puerto Rico baseball” as a top trending search.

Politics also made its way into the minds of Chicagoans this year, with “Vallas vs. Johnson” making its way up the list as the two squared off in the mayoral runoff race.

Boxing matches didn’t appear anywhere on Chicago’s top five, while the sport dominated Los Angeles’ and New York’s lists (sorry, Logan Paul).

Chicago’s top trending TV shows

The Last of Us
The Golden Bachelor
Daisy Jones & the Six
The Night Agent
Shrinking

We’ll give an honorary spot to FX’s “The Bear” — the Chicago-based hit show captured the city’s hearts — and stomachs.

Chicagoans differentiated themselves from other cities by ignoring “The Idol,” the controversial HBO Max series staring The Weeknd and Lily Rose Depp. It ranked No. 3 for New York and Los Angeles, but couldn’t crack the top five for Chicago. Richard Roeper gave the series 1.5 stars.

“The Golden Bachelor” was particularly trendy in Chicago, climbing to spot No. 2 while it sat at No. 5 for Los Angeles, and didn’t make its way onto New York’s list at all.

Chicago’s top ‘near me’ searches

Air quality near me
Pilates near me
Food pantry near me
Temp agencies near me
Golf courses near me

Air quality was on everyone’s minds this year, with wildfires pushing smoke into cities and causing a fog to settle over Chicago in June. Chicago, New York and Los Angeles all shared that search as their No. 1.

Pilates seems to be the year’s trendiest workout, making it onto New York and Chicago’s “near me” lists. Food pantries, temp agencies and golf courses were unique to Chicago out of the three cities.

Chicago’s top trending tours

Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour
Renaissance World Tour
It’s All a Blur Tour
The Celebration Tour
Doble P Tour

Taylor Swift topped the tour charts for major cities, coming in at No. 1 for New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Beyoncé, Drake and Madonna, with her postponed Celebration Tour, also all found themselves in the top five spots for all three.

Chicago and Los Angeles also added the Doble P Tour to their lists. Peso Pluma’s Chicago show was canceled after death threats against the star by a Guadalajara cartel.

Nicki Minaj tour coming to Chicago in 2024

2023-12-11T17:50:51.019-06:00

Nicki Minaj arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this year. Her 2024 tour includes a stop in Chicago.

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Calling all Chicago Barbz.

Nicki Minaj is embarking on a world tour following the release of her first studio album in six years, Pink Friday 2, which dropped Dec. 8.

The tour comes to Chicago’s United Center on April 24, 2024.

https://t.co/18zThiDr5a

The #GagCity Tour 🎀 pic.twitter.com/MTMLi497Ci
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) December 11, 2023

General onsale for the tickets begins at 9 a.m. Dec. 15 via Ticketmaster.

Citi Cardmembers can snag tickets during the presale, which starts at 9 a.m. Dec. 12. A handful of other presale opportunities, including the Spotify presale, start at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The tour kicks off March 1 in Oakland, California, with a total of 37 dates and more to be announced.

Fans have long been awaiting Minaj’s return to the road. “Pinkprint,” her last headlining tour, was in 2015-2016, and included a stop at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.

Minaj was slated to perform at Chicago’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball stop Dec. 4, but dropped out the day before with Lil Wayne taking her spot.

“I’ll make it up to you on the Chicago stops of my tour early next year,” Minaj wrote on X Dec. 3.

Chicago murals: Pullman porters’ history captured in mural by Joe Nelson, the artist known as CUJODAH

2023-12-08T11:00:02.924-06:00

Artist Joe “CUJODAH” Nelson’s mural in Pullman honors the Pullman porters.

In Pullman, a mural created this year aims to capture the history of the Pullman porters.

Artist Joe Nelson, who goes by CUJODAH, worked with Union Pacific Railroad and the National Park Foundation to create the massive dedication to the Pullman porters painted on viaducts at 109th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, where the Pullman railcar factory once stood.

The piece centers on a porter in a blue uniform standing with the historic Administration Clock Tower Building glowing in the background, with the sky a mix oranges and yellows.

“You really can’t tell, you know, if there’s a sunset or sunrise,” Nelson says. “It just shows when people were getting ready to go to sleep or waking up, they were there, and they were up and ready to work.”

Artist Joe “CUJODAH” Nelson completed the Pullman porters mural in May.

The porters worked on businessman George M. Pullman’s luxury sleeping cars in an age when rail travel was popular. They helped spur the Great Migration, and they grew the Black middle class through an organized-labor push that resulted in the first agreement between a company and a Black union.

Spotlight shines on Pullman porters in major expansion of South Side museum

While working on the mural, Nelson says he tried to learn more about the porters than what he remembered from elementary school.

“It was a grueling job, it was a tough job, but they were making way,” Nelson says. “I feel like those kind of standards and that type of energy absolutely carries over to what a lot of people are going through today.”

The Pullman porters mural at 109th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

There’s a historic mural worth checking out at the Pullman Branch library

Former President Barack Obama dedicated the Pullman National Monument in 2015, establishing what’s now the first national park in Chicago.

The mural spans two viaduct walls and includes inscriptions that offer glimpses of the history Nelson tried to explain in “layman’s terms.” The text appears out of cloud-like bubbles.

A. Philip Randolph Museum announces $30 million expansion

You can see one of the green sleeping cars, where porters served passengers, and other items, such as luggage, that Nelson included to represent the work the porters did.

Joe “CUJODAH” Nelson included images of one of the blue hats the Pullman porters wore and of the iconic green sleeping car in his mural honoring the porters.

Nelson says he was trying to “create a feeling and a mood of just the time. I want people to feel that energy. I want them to feel the power and the strength and the dedication of these larger-than-life icons that the Pullman porters were.”

A poster that Joe Nelson, known as CUJODAH, created for the national monument that eventually inspired a mural in Pullman.

National Park Foundation

Visitor center opens at Pullman National Monument

He based the mural on a vintage-looking train poster he created for the grand opening of the visitors center at the Pullman National Historic Park in 2021.

Nelson hopes the mural inspires people to want to learn more about the porters’ history.

“I want people to kind of dig into the story themselves and, you know, find out themselves, like, what it was and what it meant,” he says.

‘Pullman Company Maids’ exhibition captures Black women’s work experience during Jim Crow

Other murals in the neighborhood also pay tribute to the area’s history, including one by artist Rahmaan Statik that includes portraits of Pullman and Obama and images of historical sites in Pullman.

Former President Barack Obama’s face is part of another mural in Pullman that celebrates the area’s history.

Brian Jackson / Sun-Times

Murals and Mosaics Newsletter

Chicago’s murals and mosaics sidebar

Chicago’s murals & mosaics

Part of a series on public art in the city and suburbs. More murals are added every week.

Click on the map below for a selection of Chicago-area murals

Chicago fell in love with this viral Facebook Marketplace rental

2023-12-07T20:30:25.57-06:00

Sophie and Isabelle Lynch’s living room features stained-glass windows and vintage furniture they’ve collected over the years.

Provided

When identical twins Sophie and Isabelle Lynch listed their apartment on Facebook Marketplace looking for someone to sublet it, they worried they wouldn’t get any bites. Their post was coming as winter arrives in Chicago, and they planned to move in the middle of the month.

Then, viral posts on X and TikTok of their apartment caught the attention of thousands of Chicagoans — and admirers from afar — who gushed over the rental’s vintage details.

Fretwork and built-ins in Sophie and Isabelle Lynch’s vintage apartment caught the eye of millions of users online.

Provided

The three-bedroom, one-bath apartment in Wicker Park was listed for $2,350 a month, with the lease starting this month and an option to renew in August.

A post on X with 1.6 million views and 46,000 likes simply reads, “this apartment on marketplace taunts me.”

this apartment on marketplace taunts me pic.twitter.com/WGWPueyRe6
— suz (@suzwhoever) December 6, 2023

One TikTok, which has garnered over 100,000 views and 15,000 likes, describes the apartment as “MAGICAL!!!!”

“Oh my god I just saw this listed on marketplace last night and my jaw was on the floor,” one of almost 300 TikTok comments reads.

The Queen Anne-style residence was built in 1886, and the sisters’ apartment boasts intricate fretwork — even above the shower — along with stained-glass windows, French doors and an inviting outdoor patio.

Sophie and Isabelle Lynch’s bathroom includes fretwork above the shower, wood paneling and a claw-foot tub.

Provided

The bathroom centers around a claw-foot tub nestled among wood paneling that can be found throughout the apartment. The sisters complemented its classic style with dried bouquets above the faucet and other vintage knickknacks.

Neither had seen the apartment in person when they applied for it when they were moving to Chicago in 2018. Like those fawning over it online now, they fell in love with the apartment’s details and say they instantly knew, “I want to live there.”

Originally from Ottawa, the 34-year-old sisters are art historians and pride themselves on their furniture collection — most pieces are over 100 years old, sourced secondhand.

The built-in that commands one of the room’s of Sophie and Isabelle Lynch’s apartment is a focal point of the space.

Provided

“I hope that we’re seeing a shift that people are getting sick of living in white boxes and are starting to appreciate the charms of a historical home,” Isabelle Lynch says.

The sisters are moving to Paris this month and — sorry to break it to fans of the apartment — have just found another renter to take over the space.

“We were hoping we would find someone that would appreciate it and loves it and sees how great it is,” Isabelle Lynch says.

Their move to Paris, where they’ll be doing research, means less-breathtaking university housing is in their future. But they’re confident they’ll be able to make their next place feel like home.

Untitled

Chicago man’s tattoos feature a nostalgic cast of characters including 2 from a Shel Silverstein drawing

2023-12-01T11:00:00-06:00

Nick Yokanovich’s Shel Silverstein-inspired tattoo.

Provided

From a vintage library robot to characters straight out of a Shel Silverstein book, Nick Yokanovich’s thigh tattoos spark a sense of nostalgia with a black-and-white comic book style.

“I loved reading comic books and cartoons as a kid,” says Yokanovich, 26, of Lake View. “I thought it was such a cool way to read. It felt almost like cheating.”

One of the tattoos comes from a book almost every elementary school kid has flipped through: Chicago-born Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”

Yokanovich, who’s now a writer for a technology company, was teaching Silverstein to high school students at ChiArts when he decided to get the tattoo.

Nick Yokanovich.

Provided

“Reading those poems as an adult, one of them will be about forgetting to wear pants, and the next page will be about the absence of absolutes in human behavior or something like that,” Yokanovich says. “To see that kind of sincerity that is both fun and demonstrative of the complexities of human experience is really cool.”

The two tattooed characters, drawn in Silverstein’s sketchbook style, hug one another with soft smiles, heads tilted in opposite directions.

“I grew up with three sisters,” Yokanovich says. “The position that they’re in for that particular illustration is very much Mom with the camera — like, ‘All right now, give your sister a hug, and I’ll take a picture of you on our disposable camera.’ ”

The illustration comes from the Silverstein poem “Hug O’ War” in “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”

“With that poem in particular, I think the simplicity of it is sort of deceptive,” Yokanovich says. “I think, when you challenge that simplicity, like, it’s really simple, but I’m going to spend time with it. How is it beautiful because of that?”

Most of Yokanovich’s other tattoos also were inspired by throwbacks. On his other thigh, a kind-looking robot tilts its head, ready to “listen and understand,” Yokanovich says.

A kind-looking robot tattooed on Nick Yokanovich’s thigh was inspired by a design on an old library T-shirt.

Provided

The design was pulled from an old public library T-shirt promoting a summer reading program with the words “read into the future.”

“I think that attentiveness to those around it is kind of the characteristic or quality that I have instilled into, or admire, about the robot,” Yokanovich says.

In another piece, a cartoon man sits on a giant plant, glancing up with a contented smile. The character comes from a 1976 album titled “Mother Earth’s Plantasia” full of songs recorded for — yes — plants.

Nick Yokanovich tattooed a character from the album “Mother Earth’s Plantasia” on one thigh.

Provided

The album “served as a reminder that, dang, you can just do stuff for fun,” Yokanovich says. “Not everything has to be the most serious artistic undertaking of your entire life. You can write a couple songs for your houseplants.”

His first tattoo, a “shy cowboy” that peeks out from behind a cactus, was based on a drawing by a contemporary artist who goes by Pants.

A “shy cowboy” peeks out from behind a cactus in Nick Yokanovich’s tattoo inspired by the work of an artist who goes by Pants.

Provided

The artist has a “very distinct style that kind of obscures its beauty a little bit,” Yokanovich says.

That tattoo sparked a pattern that lead to a cast of funky characters making their way permanently onto Yokanovich’s legs.

“As I look around my room and apartment, a lot of the art I have hung up is depicting human forms,” Yokanovich says. “I think, just because they’re infinitely interesting, there’s so many qualities you can impose on them and have them impose on you.”

Untitled

Got a tattoo we should know about?

Send tips and comments to tattoos@suntimes.com

Tattoos logo

A Sun-Times series on the stories behind body art.

Travis Kelce looking to get on the ice with the Blackhawks

2023-11-30T20:51:06.333-06:00

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) celebrates with fans as he walks off the field after an NFL divisional round playoff game against the Buffalo Bills in 2022. Kelce expressed admiration for the Blackhawks Connor Bedard, but he had difficulty saying the name.

Associated Press

Sorry, Connor Bedard, the Blackhawks are already recruiting the next star player — Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

In an episode of “New Heights,” a weekly podcast hosted by Taylor Swift’s boyfriend — er, Travis Kelce — and his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center, Jason Kelce, the tight end expressed interest in getting on the ice with the Blackhawks.

“I wanna hit up the Blackhawks and get in net or something,” Travis Kelce quipped during the podcast.

He also gave a shoutout to Bedard — after stumbling over his last name a few times.

“I just know I love watching that dude play hockey,” he said.

The Blackhawks welcomed him with open arms on Twitter.

“our home is your home @tkelce! and you can just call him Bedsy,” the team posted Wednesday.

our home is your home @tkelce! and you can just call him Bedsy 😉 https://t.co/hO4YCdv9Iu
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 29, 2023

The interest in Chicago’s hockey team came as the brothers discussed a hypothetical question posed by a fan: “I got a hockey question. Who would you guys think would make the best hockey lineup for only using nfl stars?”

For the record, Travis Kelce chose himself and his brother, along with brothers J.J. Watt and Derek Watt, with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski.

The elder Kelce’s team was a bit more scientific. He chose J.J. Watt at center, the ultra-fast Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill at left wing and former Eagles QB Mike Vick at right wing.

Jason Kelce rounded out his defense with another Chicago legend, the late Bears linebacker Dick Butkus, joined by former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and the late defensive tackle Tony Siragusa at goalie.

The star tight end already has history with the city’s sports teams — he and Swift debuted their relationship as the Bears lost to the Chiefs in Kansas City on Sept. 24.

Chicago’s Spotify Wrapped: What was the city listening to this year?

2023-11-30T16:59:47.08-06:00

Spotify’s 2023 Wrapped was released Nov. 29.

Spotify

Spotify Wrapped has become an early Christmas present for music lovers across the globe.

On Wednesday, the streaming service released its 2023 data allowing listeners to dive into their listening habits throughout the year.

No one is surprised to learn pop superstar Taylor Swift, who took over Soldier Field for three nights in June, was the world’s most-streamed artist in 2023.

Chicago (Swiftcago?) also followed suit, crowning her the city’s most-listened to artist of the year.

Swifties, post-pandemic travelers help Illinois break hotel revenue record: ‘Our tourism industry is back and it’s booming’

While rap was the city’s most listened-to genre, country star Morgan Wallen made his way into the No. 1 spot for the city’s most streamed track, “Last Night.”

Here’s what else Chicagoans were listening to, according to Spotify:

Chicago’s top artists of 2023

Taylor Swift
Drake
Bad Bunny
Morgan Wallen
Peso Pluma

Chicago’s top songs of 2023

“Last Night” by Morgan Wallen
“Kill Bill” by SZA
“Ella Baila Sola” by Eslabon Armado, Peso Pluma
“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus
“Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” by Ice Spice, PinkPantheress

Chicago’s top genres of 2023

Rap
Pop
Hip Hop
Rock
Trap

Smyth restaurant earns third Michelin star

2023-11-10T16:20:12.602-06:00

Chef John Shields (foreground), executive chef at Smyth, and his kitchen staff prepare ingredients for dinner service at the restaurant. Smyth is now a three Michelin stars restaurant.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

Chicago’s Smyth has joined an exclusive culinary club.

On Tuesday night, the tony West Loop eatery was awarded its third Michelin star, making it one of only 13 restaurants in the country that have earned the industry’s highest accolade.

“I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure that you guys believe in what we do,” Chef/co-owner John Shields said on stage after the honor was revealed during the ceremony held in New York City.

“It was a complete shock,” Shields told the Sun-Times in a separate interview on Thursday.

Executive Chef John Shields speaks to staff at Smyth before dinner service on on Thursday night.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

Shields and his wife, Executive Pastry Chef Karen Urie Shields, opened the restaurant in 2016. The spot serves up contemporary cuisine out of an open-concept kitchen in the West Loop, with the tasting menu starting at $285 per person.

Smyth was awarded its first star in 2016 and its second in 2017.

As Shields accepted the honor in New York, back home his restaurant was erupting with applause as guests popped bottles of champagne for the staff, the chef said.

“Some of our close family and friends were downstairs (at the chef’s other eatery, The Loyalist) and they came up yelling ‘three stars’ in the dining room, and the whole dining room got up and started clapping for the whole team,” Shields said.

A Michelin Man statue stands on the prep station at Smyth restaurant.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

Michelin stars recognize a restaurant’s cuisine only and are assessed by anonymous reviewers based on five criteria: “the quality of the ingredients, the harmony of flavors, the mastery of techniques, the personality of the chef as expressed through their cuisine and consistency both across the entire menu and over time.”

In honoring Smyth its third Michelin star, Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides said: “The inspectors have been carefully monitoring the progress at Smyth, especially since it earned two Michelin stars in 2017. They unanimously decided that now is the time to reward the restaurant, chefs John Shields and Karen Urie Shields and their staff for delivering peak creativity, precision and teamwork. This is an elite restaurant.”

In between the restaurant’s second and third star there was a global pandemic that shook the entire industry — but Shields said Smyth made it through, thanks in great measure to the diehard staff, Shields said.

“There’s a core amount of people that have stuck with the restaurant and been with the team and have gone through the ups and downs and the turmoil along the way, and you get these small pockets of joy, you get little moments,” Shields said.

As for what makes the difference between a two-star and three-star restaurant, Shields said the team at Smyth and The Loyalist have been honed in on consistency and creativity, Shields said.

The Smyth kitchen staff prepares menu items for dinner service.

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

“The goal was to chase all that creative energy, all that focus on pushing the envelope a little bit, trying new things and pushing ourselves to be better,” Shields said.

Smyth now shares the three-star status with only one other restaurant in Chicago, Alinea, where Shields was sous chef under Chef Grant Achatz from its opening in 2005 to 2008.

But, Shields points out there’s a “dichotomy” between the two restaurants, each with their one unique and almost completely opposite style.

“You’d probably never know I worked there in some ways,” Shields said.

As the team at Smyth and the Loyalist look ahead, Shields said they’ve been eyeing opening a third restaurant while strategizing on how to take advantage of the moment in which they’ve found themselves.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for not just ourselves, but the entire team to elevate themselves and grow in a way that they didn’t think was possible,” Shields said.

And to his younger self — just getting started as a chef in Chicago — Shields would say, “Stick to your guns, stick to your goals, have a goal and believe in what you’re doing.”

Contributing: Miriam Di Nunzio

Chicago murals: New York artist gives his take on Chicago in Logan Square mural

2023-11-10T11:00:00-06:00

Jappy Agoncillo says he set out to create a mural representing Chicago through some of its most iconic images.

Provided

Tell someone you’re from Chicago, and there are questions you’re sure to hear. Cubs or Sox? Do you really put — or not put — ketchup on your hot dog? And what’s the deal with Bears fans anyway?

There are things that just scream “Chicago” no matter where you’re from. Jappy Agoncillo, a muralist from the Philippines who now lives in New York, splashed some of those symbolic images on a wall in Logan Square next to a “welcome to Chicago” mural that’s long been there.

“I thought: What if I could not overshadow that mural but complement it with something that would have the same spirit,” Agoncillo says. “I wanted both locals and tourists to come and see the mural and, even if it doesn’t say Chicago on it, feels like Chicago.”

The mural — created as part of the Titan Walls festival — replaced one that featured music legend Quincy Jones.

At the center of the new piece is a baseball player, fitted in Cubs’ blue and red. Below him, a bovine that will look familiar to Bulls fans peeks out.

And there’s a bear, inspired by the city’s pride and joy. No, not the football Bears but “The Bear.”

Agoncillo says he became obsessed with FX’s “The Bear” and how it presents Chicago to the world. The show, which follows a fictional Italian beef-joint-turned-Michelin-hopeful restaurant, was his “entry point into being so interested in Chicago.”

“It was, like, I want a bear in there because that’s what I understood about Chicago at that time,” Agoncillo says. “What connection does Chicago have to bears? Oh, that’s their football team.”

So he worked the team’s navy blue and orange colors into the background, too.

Artist Jappy Agoncillo at work.

@eastvillagewalls

The visiting artist included some non-sports Chicago references, too. Flames seem to burst forth from the bottom of the mural — those represent the Great Chicago Fire. There’s a Teddy bear that resembles Chicago-raised rapper Ye’s “College Dropout” mascot and a hidden “3” for Chicago’s Chance the Rapper.

A view of Jappy Agoncillo’s Logan Square mural from the CTA’s Blue Line.

Provided

Agoncillo says he fell in love with the Chicago flag while he was in the city, calling it “the best-designed flag in the United States.” He scattered the flag’s four red stars throughout the mural, creating a kind of I-Spy for people to find them all.

Agoncillo says passersby offered mostly positive reactions, some pointing out images they recognized, though some were disappointed that the Quincy Jones mural was being covered up.

“That’s street art,” Agoncillo says.

Mateo Conner, co-founder and vice president of Muros, the company that puts on the Titan Walls festival, says it focuses mainly on Chicago-area artists but also brings in artists from around the world.

Jappy Agoncillo’s Logan Square mural was part of the Titan Walls 2023 festival.

Provided

“I think it’s helpful not only to the city but also to the artists’ community here to have exposure to arts and culture from around the world,” Conner says. “We saw that as an opportunity, working with this artist specifically from the Philippines, based in New York, really coincided with the culture I see here.”

Agoncillo hopes to return to Chicago soon.

“I’m looking for any good reason to come back,” he says. “My friends are, like, ‘Oh you can move here, it’s like New York but cheaper.’ But it’s also like New York but colder.”

Jappy Agoncillo did this New York Rangers mural in New York City.

Provided

Murals and Mosaics Newsletter

Chicago’s murals and mosaics sidebar

Chicago’s murals & mosaics

Part of a series on public art in the city and suburbs. More murals are added every week.

Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Katie Anthony

Oprah Winfrey portrait, done by Chicago artist, unveiled at National Portrait Gallery

Chicago’s top Google searches of 2023

Chicago’s top trending ‘versus’ searches

Chicago’s top trending TV shows

Chicago’s top ‘near me’ searches

Chicago’s top trending tours

Other searches that defined 2023

Nicki Minaj tour coming to Chicago in 2024

Chicago murals: Pullman porters’ history captured in mural by Joe Nelson, the artist known as CUJODAH

Chicago’s murals & mosaics

Click on the map below for a selection of Chicago-area murals

Chicago fell in love with this viral Facebook Marketplace rental

More stories on Chicago architecture

Chicago man’s tattoos feature a nostalgic cast of characters including 2 from a Shel Silverstein drawing

Got a tattoo we should know about?

Travis Kelce looking to get on the ice with the Blackhawks

Chicago’s Spotify Wrapped: What was the city listening to this year?

Chicago’s top artists of 2023

Chicago’s top songs of 2023

Chicago’s top genres of 2023

Smyth restaurant earns third Michelin star

Chicago murals: New York artist gives his take on Chicago in Logan Square mural

Chicago’s murals & mosaics

Click on the map below for a selection of Chicago-area murals