This Fall, the Elmhurst Art Museum presents Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust, the first major museum exhibition for Chicago-based artists Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust. Lake and Faust are mutually inspired by the Japanese principle of Shakkei (“borrowed scenery”), a design philosophy that incorporates organic features and architectural designs. The artists’ kaleidoscopic works use color and pattern to create immersive optical experiences, interpreting the Eastern concept broadly as a metaphor for empathy, adaptability, and the ability to hold multiple viewpoints simultaneously. The exhibition will feature recent large-scale artworks by Lake and Faust in separate galleries, as well as a collaborative new work combining their design languages. The exhibition is curated by Liz Chilsen, Manager of Exhibitions & Collections, and will be on view at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst, fromSeptember 4, 2025 to January 4, 2026.
For this exhibition, each artist will bring their own perspective to the concept of Shakkei, reflecting their unique experiences and history. While Lake’s imagery is based on the symbolic floral motifs found in antique Japanese girls’ kimonos, Faust often incorporates the surroundings of the project or exhibition venue into his “wallworks,” creating site-specific perspectives manipulated from digital photographs. The dialogue between artists addresses the intersection of the patterns of everyday life and cultural and social histories.
Allison Peters Quinn, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Elmhurst Art Museum, said, “Shakkei highlights cross-cultural exchange by showcasing Japanese principles of landscape design and its influence on contemporary art and architecture. The artists are longtime admirers of each other’s work and decided to collaborate for the first time on a new installation for this show.” She added, “Inspired by our McCormick House designed by Mies van der Rohe, Mayumi and Bob have pushed themselves to consider how their work creates vistas and portals that heighten our understanding of the world around us. We are excited to be the first to present this incredible blend of art practices rooted in nature, pattern, and play, that turn the everyday into an extraordinary, immersive sculptural experience.”
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Working in the space between art and design, Bob Faust crafts artwork with typography at its core and viscerality on its surface. Faust has over 30 years of experience as the principle and creative director of the eponymously named cultural branding studio, Faust. He makes his work with purpose first—to inform, empower and/or instigate in the service and celebration of human difference. Text, patterns, and the ideas of surprise and discovery emerge as throughlines throughout his conceptual art practice that defies categorization and genre. Faust has been recognized nationally and internationally for his inimitable creativity through many prestigious honors including a University of Illinois, College of Fine & Applied Arts, 2022 Distinguished Legacy Award and City of Chicago, 2022 Mayor’s Medal of Honor. Exhibitions have included Mass MoCA BY The Numb3r5 (Mass MoCA), For And Nor But Or Yet So (Poetry Foundation), WA/ONDER (167 Green), with all, and still... (The Peninsula Chicago), Rapt on the Mile (The Magnificent Mile Association), Ways and Means (Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and The Chicago Transit Authority), About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art (Wrightwood 659), Great Ideas of Humanity: Out of the Container (Chicago Design Museum), guilty / Innocent (MASS MoCA); Unfolded: Made with Paper (Chicago Design Museum), Betweens (Riverside Arts Center), and CHGO DSGN (Chicago Cultural Center). In addition to his own work, Faust is also the professional and personal partner of artist Nick Cave. Together they founded the non-for-profit Facility: a multi-use creative space in Chicago that seeks to build community and change the world through art and design.
Mayumi Lake is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores the ideas of time, memory, and floating between the real and imaginary. With a foundation in photography, she integrates digital images of nature and Japanese textiles into her collages, sculpture, sound, moving images, and installation to expand the narrative of the work and form conceptual layers. Lake’s artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, Asia Society, Art in General, and Artists Space in New York; Chicago Artists Coalition and Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City; Fotografie Forum International in Frankfurt; Cornelius Pleser Galerie in Munich; Galleria PaciArte in Brescia; FOTOAMERICA in Santiago; Witzenhausen Gallery in Amsterdam; and the Setouchi Triennale in Takamatsu. She has published two monographs, Poo-Chi and Ex Post Facto, with Nazraeli Press. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Art Institute of Chicago, Asia Society, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)/City of Chicago, the McCormick Place Art Collection/Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), Video Art World, the Joy of Giving Something Foundation, and Facebook. Lake received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Shakkei: Work by Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust is presented as part of the sixth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Running September 19, 2025 - February 28, 2026 at locations throughout Chicago, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change explores timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design. Learn more at chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org
This exhibition is sponsored by Wintrust Bank with additional support from the Illinois Arts Council, Discover DuPage, Enjoy Illinois and anonymous donors.
ABOUT THE ELMHURST ART MUSEUM
The Elmhurst Art Museum is located at 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst (IL), 25 minutes from downtown Chicago by car or public transportation (Metra). On the museum’s campus is the McCormick House, a single-family home designed in 1952 by Mies van der Rohe, one of the great architects of the 20th Century. The McCormick House is one of only three residences designed and built by Mies in the United States – and one of only two open to the public.
The Museum is open Wednesday and Thursday from 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., Friday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Regular admission prices are $18 for adults (ages 18+), $15 for seniors, $10 for students, and $5 for children. For more information, please call 630.834.0202 or visit elmhurstartmuseum.org.
