Hyde Park Art Center announces Mutuality, a group exhibition of new works culminating the Art Center’s biennial Center Program, a professional development program for the elevation of emerging and mid-career artists, now in its 11th edition. Curated by writer, curator, and art administrator Teresa Silva, this exhibition will occupy the entire first floor galleries from December 12, 2025 – March 8, 2026, featuring works by twenty artists from Center Program’s 2025 cohort.
The Mutuality exhibition brings together artists whose diverse works were created in a rigorous and continual context of self-reflection and dialogue over the course of nearly a year: Bethany Cordero, Amethyst J. Davis, Caitlyn Doran, Josué Esaú, Richard Gessert, Jalen Hamilton, Juan Molina Hernández, Amay Kataria, Millicent Kennedy, Deborah Kraft, Dawn Liddicoatt, Charlotte Mays, Kelly McKaig, Gabriel Moreno, Vida Sačić, Carlos Salazar-Lermont, Eugene I-Peng Tang, Carina Vargas-Nuñez, Frank Vega, and Katie Vota. Artworks in the exhibition represent a multitude of disciplines ranging from painting and drawing to sculpture and installation to photography and video to fiber and printmaking to performance and sound.
The exhibition defines mutuality as demonstrating mutual care and interest as artists and people to think about how intentions, works, and practice impact the world. Throughout the program, mutuality guided the weekly presentations and conversations among the artists to take their work to a new level. The exhibition gives shape and form to mutuality as a creative process, emphasizing that dialogue and connection drive inspired development.
About the curator
Teresa Silva is the Chicago co-director of the national artist-run cooperative, Tiger Strikes Asteroid. In 2020, Silva curated Luis A. Sahagun: Both Eagle and Serpent, the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, at the Chicago Cultural Center. Other recently curated exhibitions were presented at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Mana Contemporary, and 6018North. Her curated exhibitions have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Art Design Chicago, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Silva has won wide praise for her art leadership, having served as a Visual Arts Panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts in 2020; and, lauded in 2019 and 2022 in Newcity’s Art 50: Chicago’s Visual Vanguard for her influence and contributions to the city’s art and culture. Previously, Silva was the Director of Exhibitions and Residencies and subsequently the Executive and Artistic Director at the Chicago Artists Coalition, from 2014-2022.
About Center Program
A long-time professional development program for Chicago artists who are ready to raise their practice to the next level, Center Program offers the unique opportunity to develop new work, receive feedback from art professionals in the field, and work towards an exhibition at the Art Center. Over the course of a year and half, a supportive peer network, guest artists, gallerists, critics, and professionals push artists to answer tough questions and evolve their practice.
About Hyde Park Art Center
Hyde Park Art Center, at 5020 South Cornell Avenue on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, is a hub for contemporary arts in Chicago, serving as a gathering, production, and exhibition space for artists and the broader community to cultivate ideas, impact social change, and connect with new networks. Since its inception in 1939, Hyde Park Art Center has grown from a small collective of artists to establishing a strong legacy of risk-taking and experimentation, emerging as a unique Chicago arts institution with social impact. Today, the Art Center offers a diverse suite of programs for artists and art lovers of all backgrounds, ages, and stages in their careers including: contemporary art exhibitions in six galleries; an open-access community-based school with 2,000 annual enrollments; weekly arts education to 1,000 elementary school students in public schools; weekly and summer teen programs for 100 teen artists; professional-advancement programs for artists; a local and international artist residency; and public programs that connect residents with Chicago art and artists. The Art Center’s Oakman Clinton School + Studio is the nation’s first fully contribute-what-you-can visual art school for all ages. The Art Center functions as an amplifier for creative voices of today and tomorrow, providing the space to cultivate new work and connections. For more information, visit www.hydeparkart.org.
