Limitations of Space: Maria Gaspar at the Chicago Architecture Biennial

This year’s 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial focuses on the practices of artists, designers, researchers, architects, and cultural centers in their development of spaces and futures that advocate for social action between Chicago and the globe. Titled as ...and other such stories, the biennial addresses themes of sovereignty, social and economic inequity, memory, and civic commitment in public spaces.

In an exchange with Newcity, Assistant Professor Maria Gaspar's (Contemporary Practices) intentions are to confront the “brutalness of borders” by amplifying the voices of those who live on the margins of society. Her social practice involves working with abstraction as a mode of responding to spatial injustices, which she visualizes in her most recent projects surrounding the incarceration of inmates at the Cook County Jail. Her invitation to the Chicago Architecture Biennial is a presentation that considers the role of the artist in translating the lived experiences of the marginalized into sites for structural reformation in social life.

Furthermore, in Newcity’s preview of the biennial, Akinbode Akinbiyi, summer 2019 artist-in-residence at Nichols Tower at Homan Square showcases medium format photographs of his interactions with the North Lawndale community. Akinbiyi will also display his works at the Nichols Tower at Homan Square from September through December.