Chicago Redraws Itself

Within Chicago’s cultural fabric — a city built on the legacy of the Sauk, Fox, and Potawatomi peoples — art has long served as a powerful vehicle for narrating stories of resilience and diversity. Against this backdrop, the newly renovated Intuit Art Museum presents its latest exhibition, *Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago*, bringing together 22 artists from the refugee diaspora in a celebration of their undeniable influence on the contemporary art scene.

Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz, “In the name of progress,” Photo by Lisa Lindvay. All images courtesy of Intuit Art Museum, shared with permission

The exhibition, featuring 75 works across multiple media, stands as a tribute to creators whose practice has flourished beyond the boundaries of traditional institutional frameworks. Intuit — a museum long celebrated for its commitment to self-taught artists since 1991 — asserts the vitality of these voices at a moment when immigration faces mounting opposition across American society.

Carlos Barberena, “Exodus”, linocut on HW Rives paper

Among the exhibition’s most compelling works are four paintings by the celebrated Drossos P. Skyllas, renowned for his hyperrealist portraits. The work of Carlos Barberena — whose linocuts frame acts of individual resistance within intricate floral motifs — is equally essential to the exhibition’s larger narrative. Catalyst promises not merely to exhibit art, but to provoke a deeper reckoning with access to artistic spaces and the values that underpin creative expression itself.

María Enríquez de Allen, “Untitled (New life goat skull)” Photo by Lisa Lindvay