Exhibitions
Our exhibitions are a vital part to our mission. We hope to find artists who not only identify with madness, or adjacent identities, but who challenge us to consider many aspects of our shared human conditions.
OUR EXISTENCE IS PROTEST
Letterpress work by David Lozano / Polvo Eres
Current Exhibition
Sept 12th thru Oct 25th
Fri and Sat 11-5
or by appointment
UPCOMING
Bri Beck
November and December 2025
Previous Exhibitions
JJ McLuckie
TUNNELS
JJ's exhibition "Tunnels" was the inaugural exhibition at PRESS HERE and consisted of paintings by the artist as well as a unique mural painted in the exhibition space. JJ's artwork explores many topics, some of which include queer identity, eroticism, and madness.
October and November 2022
Hel Martinez
The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus
Hel offered a performance art event titled "The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus" which they described as a "performance based on the tale of two Christian martyred saints from the 4th century. It is a call to reclaim the queerness erased from Catholicism and a reminder that its roots lie in the strength of the oppressed."
November 11, 2022
Clarisse Casalino
Pill Bottles Make Terrible Roller Skates
"Pill Bottles Make Terrible Roller Skates" was a series of collages by the artist which explored pharmacology, feminism, and madness.
February and March 2023
Isabelle Rizo
Madness and Mysticism
Isabelle’s first exhibition with The Center for Mad Culture was a series of watercolor works which examine meaning making through representations of madness and mysticism. As a Romanian political refugee, Isabelle explored connections to her culture and what it means “to navigate being American in Romania and Romanian in America?”
Isabelle's publication "Beyond the Cape of Dracula: Demystifying Transylvania" is available in the Center's library!
April and May 2023
Not Art Therapy
Sandie Yi and Katie O'Neill
Sandie Yi and Katie O'neill will host a collaborative exhibition which asks us to consider the ways we see and discuss disability artwork most frequently as therapeutic instead of culturally important and viable.
October thru December 2023
And Other Poems
Collect found poetry from a Private Collection
Too often language is used to pathologize mad folx, but when we look closely at langugae, when we remove it from its most formal contexts its fargility is exposed. We even offer linguisitic freedom to poets, but remain skeptical of mad langugae that cannot be aesthetically rationalized. This exhibtion asked us to reconsider how and why lanugage functions.
January 2024
Kal
Dust Beneath Snow
This work addressed errors and oddities within one's perception of the world. These perceptions come from a neglectful relationhsip with the artist's parents, a transitory relationship to both Korean and Chinese culture, and finding their own identity among states of confusion and stress.
April and May 2024
Meghann Sottile
0055 | Allostatic Load
This exhibition of assmeblage scultpure and printmaking utilized both literal and abstract forms of oars and paddles as a metaphor in exploring how our bodies are froced to adapt to the inevitable change in psychosocial and physical situations.
Sept and Oct 2024
DUNNING
an exploration of the Cook County Insane Asylum
The Center for Mad Culture published the first written historical account of the Cook County Insane Asylum, covering the years 1854-1912. To accompany this publication ten artists and ten poets were invited to respond to this history. The exhibition contained the work of the artists, and a poetry book was published to accompany those works.
Nov and Dec 2025
ARTISTS:
Cam Collins
Lily Cozzens
Melissa Kreider
Michael Michalski
Bri Noonan
Saleem Hue Penny
Genevieve Ramos
Megan Sterling
Joshua With
Keira Wood
POETS:
Stephanie Heit
Robert Ives
Gabrielle Jensen
Charlie Nutley
Edwin Parker
Saleem HUe Penny
Evan Reynolds
Titus Wonsey
Joy Young
UP 14060
melissa grace kreider
WORTHY
Worthy was a photographic investigation explooring the realities that criminalized survivors of intimate partner violence face in the U.S. Carceral system after acting in self-defense.
Feb and March 2025
Cam Collins
Museum of Miracles
An entire museum cannot be placed within a room, but Collins developed an interactive experience that not only acts as a ludonarrative gallery for the people in this world, but also as a display of Collins’ own anxieties catalyzed by Earth’s own qualities. Questions of humans as a physical artistic resource are answered by the Sun that shines inside of a museum, and it is a chaotic and violent answer that can harmlessly reside in both the head of Collins and in the museum itself.
April and May 2025