Major Fine Art Exhibitions

Michael Cheney, a Chicago area Metamodern artist, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boston University and his Master Of Fine Arts degree from the University of Illinois. Cheney’s work appears in many public and private collections across the United States, Great Britain, Europe, Singapore and Japan including the collections of prominent Chicagoans Oprah Winfrey, Vince Vaughn, the late Paul Harvey, the Johnson family (founders of Black Entertainment Television), WGN’s Rich King, Stanley Kusper (former Clerk of Cook County), the Berghoff’s, and the Goodman family (of the Goodman Theater).


Cheney was featured in Chicago’s Suite Home Chicago international urban art exhibit in 2002, honored as Atlas Galleries’ featured artist for Chicago Artists Month in 2003, 2007 and 2010, had a one-person show at the Four Seasons Hotel for the Embrace Art in Chicago event in 2004, and has been featured in Atlas Galleries “Best of the Best” show every year since 2005. In September, 2009 Cheney celebrated his ten year anniversary at Atlas Galleries with a major retrospective one-person show.


Michael taught painting, drawing and color theory at the University of Illinois, and has been an award winning artist for over 30 years.  He was a featured gallery artist in the city wide Chicago Artists Month event in 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2017. He was honored three times, 2011, 2012 and 2017, as Artist of the Year by Choose Chicago, Chicago’s Convention and Tourism Bureau, the only artist in the history of the bureau to be so honored.


He is represented by Gruen Galleries at 226 West Superior Street in Chicago.

Art Institute of Chicago

(Chicago and Vicinity Show)


J.B. Speed Art Museum

Louisville, Kentucky


Mainstreams National Exhibition


Back Bay Art Exhibition

Boston, Massachusetts


9th National /International Sculpture Conference

New Orleans, Louisiana


Everson Museum

Syracuse, New York


Art Against Aids Exhibitions

Chicago, Illinois


Suite Home Chicago

Chicago, Illinois


Art Expo

Manhattan, New York


Christopher Art Gallery

Prairie State College, Illinois


Ritz-Carleton

Chicago, Illinois


Artist of the Year 2011, 2012 and 2017 Choose Chicago, Chicago’s Convention and Tourism Bureau


Embrace Art in Chicago

Four Seasons Hotel, Chicago


Atlas Galleries

Chicago, Illinois and San Juan, Puerto Rico


Gruen Galleries

Chicago, Illinois

Michael Cheney in his studio