Chicago’s vibrant history of queer art and activism finally gets its due in a major new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA). Titled City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago, the show traces over four decades of radical creative practice in the city – from the AIDS crisis of the 1980s to today’s urgent struggles for trans rights and queer visibility.
The exhibition draws its name from Chicago’s Latin motto, Urbs in Horto – “city in a garden.” Here, the phrase becomes more than symbolic. Through works by over thirty artists and collectives, the show reframes the city itself as fertile ground for queer culture, activism, and imagination. According to the curators, these “visions remain ever urgent, as queer people continue to fight for their lives and livelihoods under ongoing and renewed political threats.”
Organised around five themes: Garden, Club, Street, Cinema, and Utopia, the exhibition maps how queer Chicagoans have transformed urban space, nightlife, cinema, and community organising into tools of survival and resistance. The result is a powerful, multi-sensory journey through the city’s queer past, present, and possible futures.
Left: Patric McCoy, Two Young Men and Waves, 1985. Digital print from original negative. Courtesy of the artist, Chicago.
Right: Roger Brown, Steve With The Head of Goliath, 1985. Courtesy of the Roger Brown Estate, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
For Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator at the MCA, this show meant tough decisions. “The biggest challenge I faced putting the exhibition together was narrowing down the list of artists,” Schneider explains. “This show could have easily been twice its size – a testament to how Chicago has been a major, if undervalued, site of queer cultural production for at least the last half-century.”
Highlights of City in a Garden include Doug Ischar’s documentary photographs capturing secret queer spaces, Nick Cave’s fantastical Soundsuits blending sculpture, dance, and identity, and Patric McCoy’s intimate portraits. Also featured are works by Amina Ross, Jeanne Dunning, Diana Solís, and Brendan Fernandes, whose acclaimed installation The Rite (2019) will be activated throughout the show by live choreographed performances – bringing art, movement, and presence into the gallery space. “Fernandes is training the dancers, who will activate his sculptural installation several times throughout the run,” notes Schneider.
Some featured artists are no longer alive, many lost to AIDS-related illnesses. The MCA worked with estates and collectors to preserve and present these essential voices. This historical dimension is balanced by newly commissioned work, like Edie Fake’s striking mural The Free Clinic for Gender Affirming Care. The piece imagines a utopian trans healthcare centre rendered in radiant, undulating colours that reflect “the full spectrum of gender expression beyond the binary.”
For Schneider, Fake’s mural brings the show sharply into the present. “Artwork throughout the exhibition illuminates the social, political, and existential challenges queer people faced in the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s. In confronting today’s anti-queer, and more pointedly anti-trans political climate, Fake’s mural shows how some of the same challenges queer people faced in the past remain challenges in the present.”
Doug Ischar, Marginal Waters #9, 1985/2009. Courtesy of the artist.
Dr Joey Orr, the MCA’s Deputy Director and Chief Curatorial Affairs, sees the show as part of the institution’s broader commitment to diverse cultural storytelling. “The MCA’s exhibition program brings revelatory art to our publics by artists with myriad perspectives and experiences,” says Orr. “City in a Garden contributes to that work by highlighting artists’ voices that specifically give depth and clarity to Chicago’s histories and their relevance to larger social and political imaginations and realities.”
Beyond the gallery walls, City in a Garden will also activate the city’s nightlife. On 18th July, the museum hosts its beloved Primetime celebration featuring Smartbar’s legendary LGBTQ+ dance party, “Queen!” – proving that the club scene remains a vital space of queer joy and community-building in Chicago.
Ultimately, City in a Garden is more than a historical survey. It’s a living archive of queer resistance and creativity – a reminder that Chicago’s queer communities have always imagined radical futures, and are still fighting to make them real.
Author: Julia Pasarón
City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
5th July 5 2025 – 31st May 2026
More information and tickets, HERE.
Lead image: Robert Lostutter, Forktailed Wood Nymph and Ruby-Topaz Hummingbird, 1982. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. © 1982 Robert Lostutter. Courtesy of the artist and Corbett vs. Dempsey. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.
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