Past Exhibits
Conditions of Encounter Exhibition
April 10, 2026 to April 25, 2026
Closing Gathering Saturday, April 25, 2026 | 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Meditative Sound Bowl Experience: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Artist Talk: 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM
DJ Sinphoric: Deep House Set To Close The Afternoon
An afternoon delight to celebrate the closing of Conditions of Encounter. We will begin the afternoon with a meditative experience so please feel free to bring your yoga mat to get comfortable and unwind. Afterwards, a discussion will be held with the artists to dive deeper with the art. Then closing off the afternoon with a deep house music set, connecting our community. We hope to see you there!
Featured Artists: Hillary Irene Johnson | Daniel Miller | Tuan Jones
About The Exhibition: Conditions of Encounter includes three artists exploring the notions of environment and atmosphere. Hillary Irene Johnson, Daniel Miller, and Tuan Jones question how we affect, document, and inhabit spaces. Bringing together interdisciplinary practices, the exhibition reveals what typically goes unseen, inviting an awareness of presence within the space. Through camera-less photography, interactive sculptures, and paintings, the works explore perception and its relation to the subtle exchanges of encounter.
Hillary Irene Johnson presents two interconnected bodies of work: camera-less salt prints from her ongoing 108 Days: Attentive Field and photographic works on silk from A Year in Light. Johnson’s practice uses natural light, duration, and handmade materials to create images that emerge slowly through repeated exposure and careful attention. Her work invites viewers into a quieter mode of perception, where light is experienced not as instant spectacle but as atmosphere, memory, and accumulation.
Daniel Miller presents Mutual Light, a series of interactive sculptural flowers that react to visitors through infrared temperature sensing, distance detection, and air-quality monitoring. As viewers move closer, breathe, and emit heat, the flowers shift in color and luminosity, making visible the often-invisible energies exchanged between body and environment. Constructed from repurposed plastic milk jugs and custom electronic systems, the works combine ecological reuse with poetic technological responsiveness.
Tuan Jones presents When Shadows Plié: The Choreography in Stillness, a series of paintings depicting humanoid figures performing ballet in Formula 1 helmets. The helmets allow the dancers to conceal themselves but also amplify their presence to better navigate the world of ballet, an institution that has historically excluded black and brown bodies. While Racecar driving and Ballet seemingly juxtapose– recklessness vs. grace, they relate in their culture of rigorous expectations of work and their precise and calculated movements. Dancers prance through a forest floor, bestrewn in contradiction, Jones creates a contemplative world where the viewer questions how they occupy and are perceived in space.
The Beauty of Chicago Photography Exhibit
Exhibition: December 20, 2025 – January 17, 2026
Opening Reception: December 20th, 2025, 6 PM
The Beauty of Chicago Photography Exhibit is a curated showcase dedicated to capturing the people, places, and stories that define the city of Chicago. This exhibition celebrates the city’s creative energy, resilience, and cultural depth through the lenses of artists who document Chicago with honesty and intention. More than a visual presentation, Beauty of Chicago represents an ongoing commitment to elevating local talent and amplifying the perspectives that shape Chicago’s creative identity.
At Forum 301, we believe creativity builds community. In alignment with that mission, proceeds from all artwork sales will benefit Marwen, a Chicago-based nonprofit providing free visual arts education to young people across the city. By exhibiting with Forum 301, artists are not only sharing their work. They are directly supporting and empowering the next generation of Chicago creatives.
Featured Artists:
Michael Ennis | Eddie Francisco | Thomas D Gallagher | Lawrence Reed | Todd Tue
Reimagining Everyday
Exhibition: September 12, 2025 – November 22nd, 2025
Opening Reception: September 12, 2025, 5 PM
Due to popular demand, our exhibition: Reimagining Everyday has been extended through November 22nd!
Don’t miss this inspiring show that transforms ordinary moments and materials into extraordinary works of art. Visit the gallery and experience how artists are reimagining the beauty of the everyday before it closes!
Featured Artists:
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Katrin Schnabl, Professor at the School of the Art Institute
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Noah Kashiani, an innovative, established Chicago sculptor and educator
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Lauren Iacoponi, a leader in Chicago creating new forms of art
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Victoria Fuller, an award-winning Chicago artist and graduate of the School of the Art Institute
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Pat Stephens, an accomplished ceramicist and metal worker who has been a major contributor to many Chicago art shows
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Jordan Campbell, co-founder of AltSpaceChicago (alt_), has a mission of using art as a tool for healing, service, and cultural redevelopment.
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Cody Norman, co-founder of AltSpaceChicago (alt_)
Not Normal: Challenging Societal Norms Exhibit
Chicago Sculpture International Group Juried Show for CSI Artists
Closing Reception Friday, June 5th from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Gallery Hours: Wed, Thu, and Fri 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM | Sat 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
 Margaret Menthol |  Happy Family |
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 Myxomycete |  The Innocente Gouache |
 Cruising What Am I Doing |  Vlad the Impaler |
 Split Pit Spunk |  Pareidolia 3 Creatures |
 Red Bird |  Recepticle Brute Bursa Yellow |
 Fortune Teller |  Critical Mass |
 Blue Green Spider |  Blocked |
 Falter in The Stubble Field |  Intelligent Heart |
 Born in the 60s |  Kitchen Table |
About The Exhibition: The theme for this exhibition is open-ended in scope and allows for many possibilities. Many kinds of art may fit into this broad category.
"Not normal" refers to anything that goes against established norms, represents an unexpected change, or deviates from accepted collective reality. For the purposes of the exhibition, depictions of ‘not normal’ are those that depart from standard norms. For example, Dada and Surrealism depict fantastical, odd, or distorted realities that differ from our collective everyday experience. "Not normal" can also refer to atypical or unusual occurrences—a flamboyantly dressed person or someone dressed as a superhero on a commuter train full of people in business attire, or events that interrupt daily life, such as a train derailment or hacked cellphone service. In politics, a government perceived as failing to protect its citizens is not normal. Likewise, a government that threatens to invade an otherwise allied nation is also not normal.
What is considered normal in one society may not be recognized as normal in another. Norms include societal rules of established behavior; ways of being and expression; political, racial, social, gender, psychological, and physical norms; as well as conventions of etiquette. Beyond social norms, there are technological and global anomalies, climate anomalies (such as red rain or boiling lakes), biological abnormalities, and other bizarre natural or physical phenomena, including UAP sightings. In physics, a particle can also exist as a wave, further challenging our sense of reality.
Physical or cognitive disabilities may also be perceived as atypical, depending on societal expectations - a sensory crossover where a person might ‘feel’ sounds in specific parts of their body or see colors while playing music—is not normal.
Synesthesia: A sensory crossover where a person might "feel" sounds in specific parts of their body or sees colors while playing music is not normal. Schizophrenia, where a person hears voices and sees people who are not there, has been considered not normal, but as societal norms change it is now considered to be a neurobiological brain disorder that can be treatable and is seen as a neurominority rather than a "broken" state.
What is considered normal changes as society changes. Historical shifts over the past 80 years illustrate this: previous generations considered it normal for eight-year-olds to care for younger siblings for months without adult oversight. Smoking on airplanes was common in the late 20th century, but is now strictly prohibited. Homosexuality, once considered a disorder, and tattoos, jogging, and single parenthood—once deviant—are now common. Yet even today, some of these societal changes face sustained efforts by certain groups to challenge or reverse them—and that, too, is not normal.
Featured Artists: Jon Antos | Ruby Barnes | Sharon Bladholm | Donna Bliss | Margie Criner | Gary Cudworth | Jason J Ferguson | Gertah Gertah | Bert Gilbert | Jill King | John Kurman | Erin LaRocque | Micki Lemieux | Ellen Lustig | Russ Marr | Bobbi Meier | Jerry Monteith | Scott Mossman | Thomas Plum | Gina Lee Robbins | Howard Russo | Dominic Sansone | Samuel Schwindt | Simone Scigousky | Marvin Shafer | Eleanor Spiess-Ferris | Rich Stewart | Yi Sun | Sishi Wang | Bruce Webber | Connor Young
Juried and curated by Victoria Fuller and Spencer Gale. For questions and more information: info@chicagosculpture.org
Estamos Aquí
Friday, June 26, 2026 to Friday, July 3rd, 2026
Lapiztola • Tommaso Iskra • Tenido a Mano
Estamos Aquí is a cultural exhibition centered on contemporary creative voices of Mexican art and identity. Featuring participating artists from Oaxaca and Merida, Mexico, and Chicago, the exhibition creates a dialogue between regional heritage, contemporary practice, and cultural preservation.
At a time when division and political rhetoric continue to shape conversations surrounding identity and immigration, the exhibition aims to create a space centered on reconnection, understanding, and cultural appreciation. The exhibition invites audiences to engage directly with artists whose work reflects lived experience, tradition, and evolving cultural narratives.
The exhibition positions Forum 301 as a platform for cross-cultural engagement and artist-centered programming while continuing to expand conversations surrounding identity, heritage, and contemporary art practices.
Panel Discussion: The exhibition will include a moderated panel discussion featuring participating artists alongside representatives from the Teacher Institute. The conversation is intended to provide deeper context on the artwork, the artistic process, and the role culture plays in contemporary creative practice.
The discussion should feel conversational, reflective, and accessible to both art audiences and community members unfamiliar with the work.
Vibrance
Wednesday, June 17th to Friday, Jul 31st
An exhibition illuminated by movement, identity, and the electric pulse of human connection
About The Exhibition: Featuring four Chicago-based artists, photography, paintings, and neon glass sculptures transform the gallery into a living atmosphere, one saturated with color, rhythm, intimacy, and unapologetic presence. Presented during Pride Month, Vibrance serves as both celebration and declaration: an affirmation of life, visibility, and the triumphs continually forged through collective resilience and self-expression.
Spencer Gale is a neon bender and sculptor working in Chicago and Southwestern Colorado. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023. He is an interdisciplinary artist examining the relationship between found-object sculpture and light through neon. As a neon bender, he endeavors to always push his skills and explore the many visual phenomena in this esoteric art form.
Painter Devon James approaches the human form as both landscape and language. Through fluorescent palettes, layered patterns, and intertwined humanoid figures, the work explores intimacy, coexistence, and the beauty found within human connection. Bodies merge and interlock within surreal compositions, suggesting the fragile yet powerful ways individuals influence and shape one another.
Photographer Francisco Malavé turns his lens toward the nightlife culture. Navigating the dim corners of clubs and gay bars, Malavé captures fleeting moments often hidden from public memory. His photographs reveal beauty within spaces society deems to remain unseen, preserving the spirit of nightlife not as spectacle, but as sanctuary.
Interdisciplinary artist Connor Young, presents paintings from his ongoing series, Killer Queen, a response to the right wing’s legislative attacks on Drag performers, queer spaces and forms of expression. In response to this, Young leans into the stereotypes that conservatives project onto Drag performers, depicting drag queens and queer icons in bright, saturated colors, with exaggerated, and often humorous poses and features.
Together, these artists construct a bright dialogue centered on visibility, liberation, and communal energy. Vibrance explores the conditions that allow individuals to express themselves most freely, while honoring the cultural spaces, histories, and creative communities that make such expression possible. Rooted within the spirit of Chicago, the exhibition invites viewers into a world where light becomes language, color becomes emotion, and difference becomes connection.
Forum 301: Upcoming Exhibitions
Mind Over Matter ll
Friday, August 7, 2026 – Monday, August 24, 2026
Mind Over Matter II is the second installment of a group exhibition curated by artist Cesar Luna that celebrates skateboarding culture and the creativity it inspires. Featuring work by artists who are skateboarders themselves or whose practices have been shaped by the sport and its community, the exhibition highlights the intersection of art, identity, and skate culture.
Supported by donations from Uprise Skate Shop, the exhibition brings together up to 60 artists from across the United States, as well as Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. The featured works span a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media, reflecting the diversity of voices connected through a shared passion for skateboarding.
Mind Over Matter II extends beyond the gallery walls with a week of community-centered programming. Visitors can look forward to an opening reception featuring live music by skateboarders, a vendor night, a sip-and-draw event, and a closing celebration showcasing additional musical performances. Together, these events create an immersive experience that honors skateboarding not only as a sport, but as a global culture that continues to inspire artistic expression and meaningful connections.