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<nav id="navigation" class="article system page"> <h5><a href="https://mcachicago.org/"> Museum of <br> Contemporary Art<br> Chicago<br> </a></h5> <ul id="menu-header" class="menu"><li id="menu-item-1300" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-home menu-item-has-children menu-item-1300"><a href="https://visit.mcachicago.org/">Visit</a> <ul class="sub-menu"> <li id="menu-item-1994" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-1994"><a href="https://visit.mcachicago.org/visit/tours/">Tours</a></li> <li id="menu-item-2599" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-2599"><a href="https://mcachicago.org/visit/accessibility">Accessibility</a></li> <li id="menu-item-1992" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-1992"><a href="https://visit.mcachicago.org/visit/faq/">FAQs</a></li> <li id="menu-item-1993" class="menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page 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</nav> </header> <main> <nav class="context"> <ol aria-label="Sections on this page"> </ol> </nav><article class="single-exhibitions page"> <header class="exhibition-info"> <h1><em>City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago</em></h1><h2>Jul 05, 2025 - Jan 25, 2026</h2><div class="links"><div class="venues"><a href="https://mcachicago.org/about/locations/sylvia-neil-and-daniel-fischel-galleries">Sylvia Neil & Daniel Fischel Galleries</a></div></div> </header> <div id="row-0" class="row-section row-gallery " data-title="Gallery" > <div class="gallery-wrapper"><div class="swiper"><div class="swiper-wrapper"><div class="swiper-slide" data-caption="Nick Cave, <em>Soundsuit</em>, 2008. Mixed media with mannequin; 100 x 25 x 14 in. (254 x 63.5 x 35.6 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Promised gift of Marilyn and Larry Fields, PG2023.21. Photo: James Prinz."><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Cave_211108-5204.webp" alt="A mannequin form, but the top half consists of a large floral arrangement"></div></div></div><div class="swiper-button-prev"></div><div class="swiper-button-next"></div><div class="caption"></div><div class="thumbnails"><div class="swiper-wrapper"><div class="swiper-slide"><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Cave_211108-5204.webp" alt="A mannequin form, but the top half consists of a large floral arrangement"></div></div></div></div> </div> <div id="row-1" class="row-section row-wysiwyg divider" data-title="About the Exhibition" > <div class="wysiwyg-section std-content"><div class="wrap"><h2>About the Exhibition</h2> <p><em>City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago</em> is an intergenerational group exhibition that highlights Chicago’s essential, yet often underacknowledged, role in the story of queer art and activism. The exhibition examines this history from the mid-1980s, when activists radically mobilized in response to the US government’s disastrous handling of the AIDS crisis. In this moment of change, activists reclaimed the historically pejorative epithet “queer” as a liberatory term, encompassing all who purposefully deviate from heteronormative society. Drawn from the MCA’s collection and other local collections, <em>City in a Garden</em> follows this paradigm shift in LGBTQ+ history by bringing together work from over 30 artists and collectives working in Chicago from the 1980s to the present.</p> <p>These artists address queerness through diverse media and methods: documenting clandestine queer spaces in photographs, creating sculptures that challenge normative depictions of gender and sexuality, and exploring queer intimacy through drawings, paintings, and videos. <em>City in a Garden</em> also features archival materials related to groups who innovatively combine artistic practices with their activism. The exhibition takes its title from Chicago’s official motto, <em>Urbs in Horto</em>, which translates to “city in a garden.” In the context of this presentation, this motto speaks to the exhibited artists’ and activists’ utopian visions of a metropolitan sanctuary for people of all races, genders, and sexualities. As queer people continue to fight for their lives and livelihoods under ongoing and renewed political threats, these visions remain as urgent today as ever.</p> <p><em>City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago</em> is curated by Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator.</p> </div></div> </div> <div id="row-2" class="row-section row-wysiwyg " data-title="Funding" > <div class="wysiwyg-section std-content"><div class="wrap"><h2>Funding</h2> <p>Lead support is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, and R. H. Defares.</p> <p>Major support is provided by Charlotte R. Cramer Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III of Wagner Foundation.</p> <p>This exhibition is supported by the MCA’s Women Artists Initiative, a philanthropic commitment to further equity across gender lines and promote the work and ideas of women artists.</p> </div></div> </div> <div id="row-3" class="row-section row-image_row " data-title="" > <div class="wrap"><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Wagner_stacked_web.webp" alt="Wagner Foundation Logo"></div> </div> </article> </main> <footer class="footer footer-v2"> <section> <h3><a href="https://mcachicago.org/" class="logo"><img src="https://visit.mcachicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/mca-logo-black.svg" alt=" 2022/03/mca-logo-black.svg "> MCA Contact Information</a></h3> <address>Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago</br></br>220 E Chicago Ave<br /> Chicago IL 60611</address> <br> </section> <section id="hours" aria-label="Hours" data-size="215" data-cwc="1"> <h3>Hours</h3> <section id="museum-hours" aria-describedby="AS1S1SH4" 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