PLUS, IN TANDEM WITH EXPO CHICAGO,
INTUIT HOSTS ONE-DAY EXHIBITION PREVIEW, FRIDAY, APRIL 25, AND
GRAND RE(IMAGINING) PARTY & AFTER PARTY, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, AND UNVEILS
MULTI-STORY FAÇADE MURAL BY BOB FAUST HONORING INTUIT ARTISTS
The newly reimagined Intuit Art Museum (IAM) proudly announces its inaugural special exhibition, Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago, the first major exhibition to focus on the importance of immigration and migration in the genre of self-taught art, on view May 23, 2025, through January 11, 2026. Co-curated by Intuit Chief Curator Alison Amick and independent curator and researcher Dana Boutin, Catalyst spotlights 22 artists and features more than 75 works from both local and leading collections, in a range of media, including drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, ceramics, woodcarving and installation. Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
Following the previously announced $10 million renovation and expansion of its current facility at 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Intuit Art Museum will officially reopen Friday, May 23, launching Memorial Day weekend, when Intuit will also debut its permanent collection gallery and signature Henry Darger collection exhibition, now on two floors.
In advance, and in tandem with the 2025 EXPO Chicago contemporary and modern art fair, April 24-27, Intuit will host a sneak preview of the Catalyst exhibition Friday, April 25, and its Grand (Re)Imagining Party and After Party, Saturday, April 26. Also in April, Intuit will unveil a multi-story public art installation by renowned Chicago-based artist Bob Faust. Wrapping the front facade of the Museum at 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Faust’s kaleidoscopic mural remixes artwork from Intuit’s permanent collection. The Wallwork will feature Chicago self-taught artists including Henry Darger, William Dawson, Lee Godie, Pauline Simon, Drossos Skyllas, Derek Webster, Wesley Willis and Betty Zakoian. For more information on these pre-opening events, please visit www.art.org
About the inaugural exhibition
Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago underscores the creative contributions of migrants and immigrants, broadening the scope to include artists deserving of greater attention, while posing questions about access to the art world and how art comes to be defined and valued. Considering artists in the context of their migration experience, cultural backgrounds and communities invites new insights into their work. Chicago, a city with a significant and ongoing history of immigration and migration, is fertile ground for investigating the rich array of academic and nonacademic influences—cultural, communal and familial—that enrich artistic production. The exhibition aims to be inclusive of the experiences of immigrants and migrants while acknowledging social and legal differences.
Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago explores catalysts for leaving home, for coming to Chicago and for pursuing an art practice. The range of personal and political subject matter and artistic styles reflects artists processing distinct cultural traditions, memories and experiences of living far from one’s homeland. Themes in the artworks range from belonging and longing for homeland, to labor and individual expression, to bearing witness to history, to assimilation. The narrative centers on the rise of self-taught art in Chicago during the second half of the 20th century, opportunities for artists leading up to this time, and the continued importance of im/migration and self-taught art to Chicago today.
Participating Artists
Carlos Barberena (active in the United States, born Granada, Nicaragua), Isamu Guy Conners (active in the United States, born Tokyo, Japan), María Enríquez de Allen (American, born Allende, Mexico), Albina Felski (American, born Fernie, Canada), Stefan Harhaj (active in the United States, born Stuttgart, Germany), Aaron Kleeblatt (active in the United States, born Poland), Tae Kwon “Thomas” Kong (American, born Hwanghae Province, North Korea, raised in Incheon, South Korea), Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz (active in the United States, born Querétaro, Mexico), Marion Perkins (American, born Marche, Arkansas), Aldobrando “Aldo” Piacenza (American, born S’Anna-Pelago, Italy), Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly (American, born Crenshaw, Mississippi), Pooja Pittie (American, born in Coimbatore, India, raised in Bombay/now Mumbai, India), Pauline Simon (American, born Nesvizh, Russia/now Belarus), Genya “Jennie” Siporin (American, born Łódź, Russia/now Poland), Drossos P. Skyllas (American, born Kalymnos, Ottoman Empire/now Greece), Dr. Charles Smith (American, born New Orleans, Louisiana), Bronislaw “Bruno” Sowa (American, born Lubomierz, Poland), Stanislaw “Stanley” Szwarc (active in the United States, born Krotoszyn, Poland), Jesús Torres (active in the United States, born Silao, Mexico), Charles Warner (American, born Prussia/now Poland), Derek Webster (American, born Puerto Castilla, Republic of Honduras, raised in Belize City, British Honduras/now Belize), and Badaskhan “Betty” Zakoian (American, born Harput/Kharput, Armenia/now Turkey).
The expanded museum features a new permanent exhibition, Henry Darger: The Room Revealed, which celebrates the legacy of the noted Chicago artist through exhibition of his artworks and source materials and evocation of his apartment, his home and studio for more than 40 years. Darger (American, 1892-1973) worked on painted and collaged drawings that illustrated his good-versus-evil novel of the Vivian Girls. This newly-installed Duchossois Family Darger Exhibition includes two galleries to explore his work, including an expanded installation of Henry Darger’s room. Important rotating loans of Darger’s artworks accompany source materials from IAM’s collection, shedding light on his methodology and contextualizing his work.
Highlights from IAM’s collection are on view beginning May 23 in the first-ever gallery devoted to continually exhibiting the museum’s collection. Artworks include William Hawkins’ monumental Statute of Liberty (1986); work from an artist-built environment by Emery Blagdon; sculpture by Kevin Sampson and work Lonnie Holley made during a 2007 residency at IAM; paintings and works on paper by Howard Finster, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Martín Ramírez and Nellie Mae Rowe; and a recent commission by Milwaukee-based artist Della Wells. The exhibition acknowledges significant work made by Chicago-based artists such as William Dawson, Lee Godie, Mr. Imagination, Roman Villarreal, Wesley Willis and Joseph Yoakum. Additional works from the collection may be seen on view in Henry Darger: The Room Revealed and Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago.
About Art Design Chicago
Art Design Chicago is a special series of events and exhibitions that highlight the city’s unique artistic heritage and creative communities. An initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with artists and arts organizations across the city, Art Design Chicago seeks to expand narratives of American art with an emphasis on the city’s diverse and vibrant creative cultures and the stories they tell.
About the new Intuit Art Museum
Intuit Art Museum is recognized worldwide as one of the few institutions dedicated solely to championing the work of self-taught s. With the renovation, Intuit will dramatically update its exhibition, programming and learning spaces for the showcase and study of self-taught art, defined as work made by artists who often work outside the mainstream and have developed a serious artistic practice. Some artists may have faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to pursuing extensive training in the arts. Now encompassing three floors over 18,000 square feet, among the dramatically enhanced spaces that will welcome Intuit visitors are four exhibition galleries; a dedicated education and art-making studio; a flexible community gathering space to host performances, lectures and activities for visitors; a revamped gift store featuring an array of unique, fun and artist-made products; and a reimagined Henry Darger Room and interpretive exhibition, showcasing the art and life of the iconic Chicagoartist over the span of two floors. Intuit’s staff is especially proud of the physical upgrades to accommodate all guests, including a new passenger elevator, interior staircases, and an accessible and welcoming entryway. Founded in 1991 as a nonprofit, Intuit is a premier museum ofself-taught art. Intuit champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. Starting Friday, May 23, 2025, Intuit Art Museum will be open 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday plus Memorial Day (post-Labor Day, winter hours may vary) and until 8 p.m. on third Thursdays. Admission is $15, or free for members, those 24 and younger, and those unable to pay.
Complimentary admission will be offered throughout the Memorial Day weekend, May 23-26, 2025.
Funding support for the Catalyst exhibition was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation. Funding support for the museum renovation was provided by a City of Chicago Community Development Grant and generous individuals.
For more information, please visit www.art.org