ABOUT
Living Systems is a series of apartment galleries spread across the neighborhood of Pilsen, Chicago. Open for one weekend only in August.
This system of galleries proposes a decentralized and democratic exhibition model, where art and community become the artwork itself. Living systems will present work of all kinds, from artists and curators of all ages, demographics, economic status, and walks of life, with a focus on the community of Pilsen. Everyone is welcome to participate, and voices that are not traditionally presented in institutional settings will be uplifted.
Comprising 4–6 curated exhibitions staged in residential apartments, the gallery system will challenge traditional ways of displaying art by placing it directly within lived spaces. Curators, chosen from an open call, will work to transform an apartment into a temporary exhibition space with each show reflecting a diversity of perspectives outside dominant institutional structures.
As part of the larger experience, visitors will receive access to a Pilsen art walk map linking these apartment exhibitions to nearby galleries, museums, businesses, and public artworks. This will position the system within the neighborhood’s existing artistic and cultural ecosystem rather than apart from it.
This system of exhibitions does not seek to occupy Pilsen, but to collaborate with it, offering a platform for shared authorship, community grounding, and constellations of thought, space, and visibility.
