Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago

As part of the Terra Foundation for American Art’s Art Design Chicago initiative, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago is planning an exhibition Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago on the impact of immigration and the immigrant experience on self-taught artists in Chicago. The exhibition will open in the newly-renovated museum on April 24, 2025 and run through January 12, 2026.

The exhibition will include lesser-known artists and reexamine better-known artists in the genre through the lens of immigrant experience, including Carlos Barberena (active in the United States, born Granada, Nicaragua), María Enríquez de Allen (American, born Allende, Mexico), 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, United States), Aldobrando “Aldo” Piacenza (American, born S’Anna-Pelago, Italy), Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly (American, born Crenshaw, Mississippi, United States), 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 ?ód?, Russia, now Poland), Drossos P. Skyllas (American, born Kalymnos, Ottoman Empire, now Greece), 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), Derek Webster (American, born Puerto Castilla, Republic of Honduras, raised in Belize City, Belize), Badaskhan “Betty” Zakoian, American, born Harput/Kharput (Armenia, now Turkey), among others.

The exhibition will explore how identity relates to artistic practice in the context of Chicago’s cultural ethos and sites for exhibition and community exchange. The range of subject matter and artistic styles reflects artists processing distinct cultural traditions and memories, intersecting with everyday experiences of living in diaspora. Themes include longing for one’s homeland, labor and individual expression, and tendencies toward assimilation, subjects examined through the lens of the aftermath of immigration and the power of art to humanize and bear witness to historical events. The narrative will: center on flourishing recognition in the second half of the 20th century, investigate the opportunities for artists leading up to this time, and conclude by highlighting the importance of immigration issues today.