Friday, Jul 10, 2026
GRAY Chicago | 2044 W Carroll Ave
GRAY is pleased to announce IT’S ABOUT TIME: Counterproductive Conceptualisms in Chicago, an exhibition that traces the contours of a newly emerging conceptual art ethos among younger generations of Chicago-based or -trained artists.
Organized by DRAW, the curatorial duo composed of Dieter Roelstraete and Abigail Winograd, the exhibition brings together a group of artists who prefer taking their time, and who often use “time” itself as one of their subjects. Shaped to a discernible degree by the local legacies of artists like Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and Pope.L, this distinctly contrarian strand of conceptualism in Chicago seeks to restore the social magic of both art and the artist’s life.
The artists include Alex Chitty, Shir Ende, Max Guy, Jinn Bronwen Lee, Dave Lloyd, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Devin T. Mays, Pope.L, Nick Raffel, and Miao Wang.
While maintaining disparate practices, these artists share a spirit of studied nonchalance: what might be described as a “Midwestern” alternative to the demands of artistic production as a rat race.
IT'S ABOUT TIME will open on July 10 with a public reception from 3-8 PM, with artist activations.
