Madlener House
4 West Burton Place
Chicago, Illinois 60610
Telephone: 312.787.4071
info@grahamfoundation.org
Gallery and Bookshop Hours Latinitudes Apr 03, 2026 - Sep 26, 2026
Bonnie Han Jones Lampo Performance Series May 16, 2026
The World Around Summit 2026 WATCH PARTY May 09, 2026
MILITARY GARDENS: Roberto Burle Marx in Brasília Catherine Seavitt Apr 30, 2026 Talk
CURRENT EXHIBITION
LATINITUDES: A Collection of Modern Architecture
Photographs by Leonardo Finotti, curated by Michelle Jean de Castro
Extended through September 26, 2026
GALLERY AND BOOKSHOP HOURS
Wednesday–Saturday, 12–5 p.m.
Free admission, no reservations required
Image: Facultad de Ingeniería de Minas, Geología y Metalurgia (Faculty of Mining, Geology, and Metallurgical Engineering), Lima, Peru, designed by Walter Weberhofer, 1956–62. Photograph by Leonardo Finotti, 2016. © Leonardo Finotti
The Graham Foundation and the Chicago Architecture Biennial mark the release of SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, published in conjunction with the sixth Chicago Architecture Biennial, led by artistic director Florencia Rodriguez.
SHIFT signals the opportunity and need to change direction—an invitation to think with others and to set new grounds for the interpretation and design of our built environments. Edited by Rodriguez, Santiago Bogani, Igo Kommers Wender, and Isabella Moretti, it is an editorial experiment on dispersion, embracing multiplicity as a method and conversation as a form. Featuring contributions from biennial participants and invited contributors, it acts as a curatorial capsule that extends SHIFT into print, opening new spaces for conversation, collective speculation, and architectural imagination.
Join Florencia Rodriguez and Igo Kommers Wender in conversation with biennial participants Kelly Bair (BairBalliet), Alexander Eisenschmidt, Clare Lyster (CLUAA), and Antonio Torres (The Bittertang Farm), followed by a reception. Copies of SHIFT, co-published by the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Park Books, will be available in the Graham Foundation bookshop.
Kelly Bair, co-founder of BairBalliet, leads a Chicago and Los Angeles practice whose speculative and built work spans architecture, exhibitions, and design research.
Alexander Eisenschmidt directs Studio Offshore, an architecture and urban design practice, and leads The Housing Futures Initiative, with work spanning design, writing, and international exhibitions.
Igo Kommers Wender, an architect, editor, and cultural producer based in Chicago, is associate curator of the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Clare Lyster, founder of CLUAA, leads a research practice exploring how logistical and metabolic systems shape architecture, landscape, and infrastructure.
Florencia Rodriguez, founding principal of -NESS, leads an international cultural platform for architecture and served as Artistic Director of the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Antonio Torres, co-founder of The Bittertang Farm, leads a playful, inventive design practice based in Chicago and Bainbridge Island whose work explores speculative forms and living materials.
ABOUT THE PUBLICATION
Essays, manifestos, and conversations feature: Kelly Bair; Arno Brandlhuber; Alejandra Celedón; Kate Yeh Chiu; Juan Du; Janet Echelman; Alexander Eisenschmidt; Valeria Esteves; Alison Fisher; Fredi Fischli; Giulia Foscari, UNA/UNLESS; Ignacio G. Galán; Amber Ginsburg; David Gissen; Architensions (Alessandro Orsini and Nick Roseboro); Jia Yi Gu; Akilah Halley; Chana Haouzi; Christopher Hawthorne; Rossana Hu; Daniel Ibáñez; Sam Jacob; Sharon Johnston; Wilfried Kuehn; Mark Lee; Clare Lyster, CLUAA; Simona Malvezzi; Florencia Medina; Caitlin Mueller; Cristiane Muniz; Janell Nelson; Niels Olsen; Tosin Oshinowo; Cristóbal Palma; David Peyceré; Hilary Sample; Gloria Sutton; Martien de Vletter.
The publication includes a five-hour conversation marathon on topics such as new realism, the magic in the ordinary, pleasures in the urban, and the need to critically shift architecture's language with Biennial participants Sebastián Adamo, Lilla Árkovics, Juan Manuel Balsa, Roberto Behar, Erin Besler, Caio Calafate, Sol Camacho, Abigail Chang, Lap Chi Kwong, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, Attila Csóka, James Dallman, Iman Salam Fayyad, Nathalie Frankowski, Cruz Garcia, Adriana Giorgis, Alison von Glinow, Alejandro Haiek Coll, Grace La, Sean Lally, Frederico Leite, Lara Lesmes, Iván L. Munuera, Mireia Luzzárraga, Masa Mahlek, Maria Vittória Martins, Rosario Marquardt, Szabolcs Molnár, Noelia Monteiro, Daniel Moreno Flores, Frida Mouchlian, Leandro Piazzi, Lolo Rebecca Rudolph, Alejandro Saldarriaga, David Smiló, Alfredo Thiermann, Leonidas Trampoukis, Pedro Varella, Aura Venckunaite, Alex Yueyan Li, Ema Yuizarix, and Oscar Zamora.
Co-published by Chicago Architecture Biennial and Park Books
The Chicago Architecture Biennial convenes the world to explore innovative ideas and collectively imagine the future of design. The Biennial’s large-scale exhibitions, talks, performances, films, and other events, create opportunities to engage timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design, emphasizing creativity and community participation. Free and open to the public, the Chicago Architecture Biennial stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture and design.
Image: Estudio Planta, Latin America Informal City 2025. Courtesy Estudio Planta
Presented by Independent Curators International (ICI) and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, this conversation between architect Koray Duman and Sarah Herda, director of the Graham Foundation, will explore the role of exhibition architecture in shaping how artists, curators, and institutions communicate and engage with audiences. Drawing from Duman’s work with artists and art institutions, the conversation will consider how exhibition design can support curatorial ideas, expand the possibilities of institutions, and deepen the narratives surrounding artists’ work.
Büro Koray Duman (B-KD) is an award-winning, research-driven architecture and design studio based in New York City and Istanbul. Founded in 2013, the international practice approaches design as a tool for connection between people, designing stimulating, adaptable environments that nurture generosity, knowledge exchange, and evolving forms of community. Working across all typologies and scales, B-KD’s past clients include MoMA PS1, MOCA Geffen, Guggenheim Bilbao, the Finnish Cultural Institute NY, the Noguchi Museum, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, artist Richard Prince, the American Society for Muslim Advancement, and the Center for Art and Advocacy.
Koray Duman, founder of Büro Koray Duman, invests in the social, cultural and ecological challenges of our built environment with innovative architectural strategies. As an immigrant and LGBTQ man, Koray expresses in his work the need for architecture to encourage human bonds as a form of cultural advancement, creating spaces that promote inclusion, connectivity, and engagement with everyone. Prior to establishing Büro Koray Duman in 2013, Koray was the co-founder of Sayigh Duman Architects and had previously worked as the lead architect on several West Coast museum projects for Frederick Fisher & Partners. Koray has been the chair of New Practice Committee at AIA NY, a board member of the Clemente Center, and part of the Leadership Council at Van Alen Institute. He is currently a fellow of Urban Design Forum, and sits on the advisory boards of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and ProtoCinema. Koray has taught at Pratt Graduate School of Architecture, the New School, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is originally from Turkey where he earned a BArch from Middle Eastern Technical University, and furthered his studies at UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design with a master’s degree in Architecture. Koray is a registered architect in New York and Turkey.
Independent Curators International (ICI) supports the work of curators to help create stronger art communities through experimentation, collaboration and international engagement. Curators are arts community leaders and organizers who champion artistic practice; build essential infrastructures and institutions; and generate public engagement with art. Our collaborative programs connect curators across generations, and across social, political and cultural borders. They form an international framework for sharing knowledge and resources — promoting cultural exchange, access to art and public awareness for the curator’s role.
Photo: Denniston Hill, Chimera, 2026, installation view, 'In Minor Keys', 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Design by Büro Koray Duman. Photo by Gaia Cambiaggi/Studio Campo. Courtesy of Denniston Hill
Patricio del Real presents his book, Constructing Latin America. Architecture, Politics, and Race at the Museum of Modern Art (Yale University Press, 2022)—a nuanced look at how, through architecture exhibitions, this New York institution became a key agent in cultural politics in the United States and in the consolidation of “Latin American architecture” as a modernist category. Del Real demonstrates how The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)’s curatorial activities generated and naturalized “Latin America” not only as a stylistic and cultural variant of international modernism but also as a racializing concept at a critical global conjuncture. The idea of “Latin American architecture” was seminal for the interpretation of modern architecture in the twentieth century and, moreover, for MoMA’s international projection as cultural arbiter in the Cold War period. It remains an active category that underpins studies on architectural modernism as a global phenomenon. Constructing Latin America was supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation in 2021. This talk is presented in conjunction with Latinitudes: A Collection of Latin American Modern Architecture by Leonardo Finotti, on view at the Graham Foundation through July 18, 2026.
Patricio del Real is known for his expertise in the field of architecture and architecture history, with a focus in the Americas. His work examines the intersections of buildings, politics and cultural identity. As an architectural historian, he contributes to a deeper understanding of the global dimensions of modernism, shedding light on its unique transformations and adaptations. One of his notable contributions is his focus on institutions and the transnational flows of ideas and practices and how these migrations have impacted both the development of architectural forms and the practices of architects in the second postwar period. Del Real is associate professor in the department of the history of art and architecture at Harvard University. Before his appointment at Harvard, he worked at The Museum of Modern Art’s architecture and design department on several temporary and collection exhibitions, and cocurated Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980.
Image: Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Fashion shoot in front of the Ministério da Educação e Saúde (MES), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as published in, “Urban Cotton: For Being at Ease,” Harper’s Bazaar, May 1946
For more information on the exhibition, Latinitudes
A Collection of Latin American Modern Architecture, click here.
Nick Dunston premieres Near of Kin, a new song cycle about family—chosen and inherited, contemporary and ancestral, loving and damaging. The title comes from novelist Octavia Butler, whose writing grapples with kinship and power.
With Julian Otis and Ben Lamar Gay on vocals, Gay also on cornet and electronics, and a string trio of Caroline Jesalva, Tomeka Reid, and Dunston.
Nick Dunston (b.1996, Washington, D.C.) is a composer, improviser, and sound artist active in the New York and Berlin experimental music scenes. His work spans large-ensemble composition, improvisation, and multimedia projects, often integrating electronics and live processing.
Dunston has received commissions from Wet Ink Ensemble, Bang on a Can, JACK Quartet, Gaudeamus Festival, A L’ARME Festival, Ekmeles, and others, and has collaborated as a performer with artists including Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Moor Mother, Darius Jones, Lucrecia Dalt, Joy Guidry, Son Lux, Craig Taborn, Dave Douglas, Allison Miller, Anna Webber, and Amirtha Kidambi. In 2019 he received a Van Lier Fellowship from Roulette, supporting the creation of the trans-media song cycle La Operación, the double bass quintet piece The Floor is Lava!, and his debut studio album Atlantic Extraction.
Recent recordings include Spider Season (2022) and the Afro-surrealist-anti-opera COLLA VOCE (Out Of Your Head Records, 2024). Dunston can also be heard on the score to the film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). He has presented artist talks at institutions including the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, the University of Iowa, and Stony Brook University. Dunston was nominated for the Deutscher Jazzpreis in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and with Cansu Tanrikulu won the SWR Jazz Prize in 2024.
Lampo, established in 1997, supports artists working in new music, experimental sound, and other interdisciplinary practices. The Chicago-based organization's core activity has been and remains its performance series. Rather than making programming decisions around tour schedules, Lampo invites selected artists to create and perform new work, and then the organization provides the space, resources, and curatorial support to help them fulfill their vision. Lampo also organizes artist talks, lectures, screenings, and workshops, and publishes written and recorded documents related to its series.
Accessibility: This event will be held in the ballroom on the third floor of the Madlener House, which is only accessible by stairs. The first-floor galleries and bookshop are accessible via outdoor lift. Please contact us at 312.787.4071 or info@grahamfoundation.org to make arrangements.
Note: Registration for Lampo programs is required, but does not guarantee entry. Capacity for this performance is limited. Doors open 30 minutes prior to the performance and seats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis for those registered in advance. Reservations expire 5 minutes before the performance start time, at which point seating will be released to the waitlist. Due to the popularity of the Lampo programs, performances quickly reach capacity. No late seating will be permitted.
Photo: G. Richter
GALLERY AND BOOKSHOP HOURS
Wednesday–Saturday, 12–5 p.m.
Free admission, no reservations required
CONTACT
312.787.4071
info@grahamfoundation.org
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