“The whole world is a mystery,” said Gertrude Abercrombie. Born in Austin, Texas, in 1909, the daughter of traveling opera singers, she studied in Chicago and earned the title “queen of the Bohemian artists.” Immersed in Chicago’s jazz scene, Abercrombie mingled with legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan. After long nights at the clubs, she would return home to paint small Surrealist works—ordinary objects rendered odd. A snail in relief against the sky and moon. A woman levitating above her bed, flanked by a small black cat. “I am not interested in complicated things nor in the commonplace,” she explained. “I like to paint simple things that are a little strange.” By the late 1950s, Abercrombie was living in poverty, her health declining as alcoholism and arthritis left her bedridden. She died in 1977. This exhibition offers a comprehensive survey of her simple weirdness. —Elena Clavarino