Each week, Chicago Public Radio’s Matt Cunningham brings us three offerings to feed our cultural appetite. This week, he revisits some choices that you may have accidently overlooked.

Call these my double-takes. This past spring, I interviewed Ana Maria Radu as she was preparing to graduate Niles West High School. I was blown away by her drawings, which are currently on display in Chicago. She works with perceptions, weaving life experiences into her works.

RADU: I’ve been lucky enough to travel to many places throughout my life. And that’s had such a huge influence on me. And that really makes up who I am a lot more than other things, that stands out to me. So I use that them in a lot of my self-portraits.

In one piece, she is floating down a stream. Her body filled with markings and images that represent her unique life experiences. The rolling hills in the background have street names of the places she has visited around the world.

Lately, she’s working in mixed media as a reaction to our culture continually bombarding us with information.

RADU: We are exposed to so many images of art, almost like sensory overload. And taking those and putting them in the art work seems really necessary for me sometimes.

Ana Maria Radu heads to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, this fall. You have a chance to see her works through the end of the month at the Anita Miller Gallery in the Fine Arts Building on South Michigan Avenue.

Another interview I very much enjoyed was in south suburban University Park on the campus of Governors State. There, the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park holds 26 large pieces, spread throughout the campus. And include work by acclaimed artists Bruce Nauman, Martin Puryear and Mark di Suvero, who currently has 5 pieces in Millennium Park.

Granted the first time I suggested heading down was for an alternative to Super Bowl Sunday, and what ended up being one of the coldest days of the year. Now, its summer, and what better time to walk the paths and experience the works. Geoff Bates is the director of the Sculpture Park. He says they are a must see.

BATES: The people who created these objects are remarkable in their imagination and their willingness to put themselves on the line and create these things. And confronting them in person, seeing the scale and the intricacy of some of this work will provide listeners with an enriching experience.

There is a Metra stop on the northern edge of campus so no car is needed. Walking tours are periodically planned.

If the south suburbs seems like trek for you, but you still want to experience the outdoors and get a bit of art, check out the Discovery Museum on the lush grounds of the Lake County Forrest Preserve.

Stop three of our Three to See examines album art from the earliest attempts in the late 1930s to present day. Now for you Millennials, an album is a big round disk people would listen to before downloads. The exhibition explores how the images on said “albums” represent Jazz, Funk, Punk and Pop music.
Justin Collins is exhibits developer at the museum. I asked him, “Can you truly just an album from its cover?”

COLLINS: Sometimes. It depends on what the genre is, what the artist is trying to get across with the album cover art. And to certain degrees, yes you can. Certain genres like jazz, you can look at the cover and you can tell it’s a jazz album. A lot of the older albums, that was the purpose, to get across what the music was about, was using the album cover.

The show also highlights works by established artists, such as Robert Maplethorpe’s photograph of Patti Smith, Andy Warhol’s cover for the Velvet Undgerground and Salvador Dali’s creation for a Jackie Gleason album.

The exhibition LP Art continues through August 3 at the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda, Illinois.