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By KEVIN NANCE
\r\n\r\nArt collector Helen Zell is one of those people who thinks best on her feet. Given the option of a sit-down chat or being interviewed while touring the modernist Streeterville condo she shares with her husband, businessman Sam Zell, she immediately chooses the latter. It’s quite a trek, encompassing 18,000 square feet of space that contains some 800 objects, including major works by René Magritte, Joan Miró, Frida Kahlo, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Remedios Varo, Giorgio de Chirico, Louise Bourgeois and a host of younger and emerging artists, along with ethnographic material and the occasional foray into Pop art.
\r\n\r\nAssociated for two decades with the Museum of Contemporary Art, where she has held several positions including board chair, Zell is sleek and chic—her draping silver hair set off against an elegant all-black outfit—but entirely down-to-earth, her husky alto regularly erupting into laughter. Here’s an edited transcript of our visit.
\r\n","body":"By KEVIN NANCE
\r\n\r\nArt collector Helen Zell is one of those people who thinks best on her feet. Given the option of a sit-down chat or being interviewed while touring the modernist Streeterville condo she shares with her husband, businessman Sam Zell, she immediately chooses the latter. It’s quite a trek, encompassing 18,000 square feet of space that contains some 800 objects, including major works by René Magritte, Joan Miró, Frida Kahlo, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Remedios Varo, Giorgio de Chirico, Louise Bourgeois and a host of younger and emerging artists, along with ethnographic material and the occasional foray into Pop art.
\r\n\r\nAssociated for two decades with the Museum of Contemporary Art, where she has held several positions including board chair, Zell is sleek and chic—her draping silver hair set off against an elegant all-black outfit—but entirely down-to-earth, her husky alto regularly erupting into laughter. Here’s an edited transcript of our visit.
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CGN: How did you get started with collecting?
\r\n\r\nHZ: The collection was originally conceived as a Surrealist collection. It was 18 years ago—Sam and I weren’t even married yet—and we talked about collecting art. Over dinner one night, he looked at me and said, “Do you like art?” I said, “Yeah, I like art. Like it a lot.” Then, “Well, what do you like?” I said, “Well, I like a lot of things. I’ve been a museum-goer my whole life.” He said, “Well, I like Surrealism!” I said, “You do?”
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You didn’t know that at the time?
\r\n\r\nI didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know he was interested in art, let alone Surrealism.
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Am I correct in thinking that you, rather than your husband, take the lead in the collecting process?
\r\n\r\nThat’s right. When we first decided to do this, Sam looked at me and said, “OK. You do all the work and I’ll write the checks. It’s really going to be fun.” And that was it.
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So, you’ve always been in the driver’s seat.
\r\n\r\nYeah. But he loves it. And takes great pride in walking around and learning about the collection. It’s a really big part of what he likes to show people.
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And did you have a background in art when you started the collection?
\r\n\r\nNot really. I was always a museum-goer, but I never took an art history course. I was always a literature person, and I played the piano.
\r\n\r\nI was afraid to go to galleries. Terrified! Because they were so snooty. I lived in New York when I was young, and was horrified by walking into these places that were so quiet. Nobody talked to you - kind of looked down their noses at you. I was really uncomfortable and didn’t feel like I belonged there.
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So the two Magrittes on the wall there are foundations of the collection?
\r\n\r\nRight. Also Dalí, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy. Our criteria generally was the quality of the work—how it affected us. Did it intrigue us? Did it make our hearts beat a little faster?
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That’s a good yardstick.
\r\n\r\nAnd pretty consistently, that’s been true, whether it’s Surrealism or work that has nothing to do with Surrealism. You have Magritte and you have these Mayan ceramic figures that are 2,000 years old, and you think, “What do they have to do with one another?” Well, maybe nothing.
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Maybe the connection is those African masks that inspired Picasso.
\r\n\r\nTo me, it’s about the way the artists express themselves. (Pointing to a piece.) That’s by Gertrude Abercrombie, an American Surrealist from Chicago whom I had never heard of until Julie Rodrigues Widholm at the MCA did a collection show and revealed to me for the first time that there were a couple of Abercrombies in our permanent collection. She juxtaposed some of those pieces against more contemporary work and showed how they influenced one another. I loved the work and found out that we had a dealer in Chicago with access to it, so I went to Corbett vs. Dempsey and they found me an Abercrombie! That’s the part I really love—the story, the hunt. Making connections, finding out I really love something that fits in with the other work that we already have, then going to find it. That’s always fun.
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Well, “eclectic” is the word of the day.
\r\n\r\nIt’s actually not. If you look at a lot of collections today that are put together for hedge-fund guys and people who are into buying for the sake of having trophies on their wall, buying and selling. . . that’s very different from what we’ve done. We’ve done what the collectors did once upon a time. They collected what they loved, and they took little side trips, had little adventures. I like to think I’m an old-fashioned collector.
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It’s not about buying and selling.
\r\n\r\nWe never sell. We buy it and expect to eventually give it away.
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Next, we encounter a group of neo-primitive sculptures by Louise Bourgeois.
\r\n\r\nOne of my favorite artists is Louise Bourgeois, who died a few years ago. There were originally about 50 of these sculptures, called “Les Personnages,” first exhibited together at MOMA in the ’50s. The group has been reassembled a few times, including once at the Guggenheim in New York. When you think of her work juxtaposed with Tanguy’s, I think she has a Surrealist DNA. I just find them very compatible.
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They seem to have a relation to your ethnographic art.
\r\n\r\nYes. Absolutely. They’re like totems. That’s the kind of thing that makes it all make sense for me.
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One of the sculptures has a mirror for a face.
\r\n\r\nMy grandkids love that. It’s like you become part of the piece.
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There might also be a reference to women carrying baskets on their heads.
\r\n\r\nOr it might be some strange figure with a whirlibird on his head. (Laughs.) Later in her life, she did some incredibly huge monumental spiders. One of them was in the Turbine Room at the Tate. Then she did some that were much smaller, like this one (points to a spider sculpture on a table). There are about five of these, and in this case she combined it with one of the little cloth figures she was making at the end of her life. I love this piece. You can say it’s strange or tortured, but I like to think of it as a more powerful version of her—sort of stalking her prey.
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*
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In the hallway, Zell pauses in front of two paintings hung side by side, both featuring couples—the first very happy together, the second not so much.
\r\n\r\nThese are two of the pictures that started the collection. We’re at an art fair early on, and Sam zeroes in on this piece (of the happy couple). He says, “Who’s this artist?” It was Dubuffet—early Dubuffet, from the ’40s, didn’t look like his later work at all. And Sam said, “I really like that piece.”
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One of the faces looks like an Ed Paschke face.
\r\n\r\nDefinitely, although Paschke wasn’t working yet. Anyway, the couple looks very happy together. I think it’s a classic example of, you know, you see something that resonates, because it means something for you.
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You were newlyweds.
\r\n\r\nWe weren’t even married yet. We were very happy and very romantic. It’s also very colorful, and we both love color.
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(Pointing to the other painting): This is later in the relationship—darker, more serious
\r\n\r\n(Laughs): We still weren’t married yet. Although I have to say, we’re not dark, not very serious. Sam’s one of the most upbeat people you’ll ever meet. I’ve learned a lot about optimism from him. Anyhow, the next year, there was another painting with another couple. This is Heinrich Campendonk, a German Expressionist.
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The piece has a Rousseau-like feel.
\r\n\r\nI see that. I think it also has some interesting references to sex.
\r\n\r\nAs Sam will tell you, that’s a big thing for him. Lots of naked ladies. Tits and ass! (Laughs.)
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We turn the corner, where there’s a large Roy Lichtenstein painting.
\r\n\r\nThat was in the Lichtenstein retrospect at the Art Institute a few years ago, wasn’t it?
\r\n\r\nThat’s right. It was one of the few pieces in the show that wasn’t owned by someone who wouldn’t sell it. It was offered for sale by [New York art dealer] Larry Gagosian. (Cont. on next page...)
\r\n\r\nSo when Sam and I fell in love with it, we were keenly aware that we could probably buy it.
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You bought it after having seen it at the Art Institute?
\r\n\r\nRight. I immediately contacted Larry—I knew him very slightly—and we started the dance, the negotiation, which lasted about three months.
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That’s a long dance.
\r\n\r\nHe’s tough, but so am I. (Laughs.)
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I’m sure you drive a very hard bargain.
\r\n\r\nIt’s just that I’m tenacious. Sam would never—he would say, “How much does the painting cost?” The guy would tell him, and he’d say OK and write a check. I cannot do that, because I’m too familiar with the way the art world works.
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There’s big markup.
\r\n\r\nThey mark up their paintings with the idea that they’re going to deal with you, negotiate. That’s all part of the process.
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And you did get Gagosian to come down on the price?
\r\n\r\nYeah. He finally broke down and sold it to me two days—or maybe a day and a half—before a big auction where the values of Lichtenstein went up 40 to 50 percent.
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So it wasn’t a good move to sell when he did.
\r\n\r\nNo. He should have waited. And I would have had to be satisfied with a worse price for me because of what happened at that auction. That’s where the art market really influences what you’re doing as a collector. I hate that part of it, but you must be aware of it.
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*
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We move to another large space down the hall, formerly a separate apartment which now houses the Zells’ photography collection and works by younger and emerging artists, many with a Surrealist bent.
\r\n\r\nA lot of the work in here is collected in tandem with institutions, especially the MCA and the Art Institute. If they’re doing a show and want to collect the work—like this piece by Marlo Pascual—and I like the work, I buy it and promise it to the institution. It’s a way of supporting the local museums and keeping work moving in and out of the space. It gives me the opportunity to be flexible without having to store things. I like to keep moving on.
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Do you think of this as a separate collection, or as part of a single collection?
\r\n\r\nIt’s one collection with two pretty clearly defined parts, but a lot of the young artists in here are influenced by Surrealism, so it’s the perfect time to start mixing them together.
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This is an interesting piece (referring to a large panel covered with peacock feathers).
\r\n\r\nThat’s a Carol Bove, another artist I discovered through my association with the MCA. They did a show called The Language of Less, and she was one of the artists included. So I bought this from the show, and it will eventually go back to the MCA.
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We come to a collection of small pieces, including maquettes, driftwood, seashells and other objects, in what appears to be a sandbox.
\r\n\r\nThis looks like Lee Bontecou.
\r\n\r\nIt is! And it’s actually one of my favorite stories. She did a show four or five years ago for Ann Freedman in New York, and I loved it, and was very interested in these three things called “Sandpits,” which were included in the exhibition to show how Lee works in her studio. They were not really considered works of art; they were just to show how she puts things together, experiments with shapes and forms. Well, I fell in love with this. I didn’t want to buy one of the pieces of art—I have a lot of her art—but I really wanted to have this. I’ve always been fascinated with her, I’ve met her, spent some time with her. So I asked if I could buy this, and Ann said, “I don’t think she wants to sell this.”
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It’s work product, essentially.
\r\n\r\nExactly. It’s a sandbox you play in to decide what you’re going to make next. I said, “Oh, Ann, just tell her I’ll give it to the MCA! Beg her!” (Laughs.) Months went by, and then Ann called me one day and said, “She finally agreed to do it.” So finally it arrives in a box—all the sand, in bags, and all the little objects, beautifully wrapped in tissue paper. I had Ann photograph the whole assemblage when it was in New York, so I made a grid and proceeded to put it all together. And it worked. Then Ann called me again and said that Lee had said, “You know, she doesn’t have to do it like I did it. She can do it the way she wants to do it.” And I said, “I thought I’d start off the way Lee did it.” (Laughs uproariously.)
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Kevin Nance is a Chicago-based freelance writer and photographer Twitter @KevinNance1
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Fall offers a full slate of exhibitions across galleries and museums throughout the Midwest. Behind the scenes, many people in the community are working tirelessly to support artists and bring fresh perspectives to the public. We spoke with five insiders about what excites them now and what they anticipate next.
The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in CGN's Fall 2026 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition click here.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1789517637/noxz9olp47gfneafz8xg.jpg\")
“I’m thrilled to further expand my artistic and design practice by introducing other mediums into the mix. I’m looking forward to watching the seasons change and devoting a lot of time in the studio as well. Fall/winter is my favorite time to create new works.
I have an upcoming solo show with VSG Contemporary that I am excited about. The work will delve further into the topics of cultural mythology and how these tales and narratives have helped shape my worldview.
Also, it wouldn’t be right if I left out my excitement for this upcoming season of Chicago sports.”
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961823/s3lp0uull2s8mvd8funj.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Extension Cords, Glazed stoneware, chrome, Sizes vary 2021-present. Photo: Mikey Mosher
This interview is part of CGN's Fall 2026 issue. Purchase a copy or subscribe.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961824/mghrpnghxd9j9ko2dsjt.jpg\")
Andi Crist
BY ALISON REILLY
Andi Crist’s warm, engaging demeanor is evident in the first few minutes of our conversation. Generous with her time and forthcoming in her observations, she cares deeply about building relationships through her art making. Crist grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, devoured art classes, wrote songs and played music in high school, and moved to Chicago to study visual art at Columbia College. In 2024, she received her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a woodworker, sculptor, ceramicist, and conceptual artist, and she teaches at Illinois Institute of Technology. We discussed her multidisciplinary practice, her experience working as an art handler, preparator, and fabricator, and how she thinks about labor, creativity, and value in the art world.
CGN: You grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. How did that environment shape your point of view as an artist?
Andi Crist: That’s such a funny question. Nobody’s ever really asked.
CGN: Oh, really?
AC: Yeah, maybe because I never was super connected with the arts community down in Birmingham. I moved to Chicago in 2007, so it’s been 20 years since I lived in the South. I was definitely one of those art kids—one art credit was required in high school, and I graduated with like seven. I was surrounded by artists who had a big impact on me, because they were working artists. All my art teachers were trained in Alabama and then continued to teach and work in Alabama, which gave me this desire to try to expand my community outside of what I was familiar with.
CGN: Do you identify as a Chicagoan?
AC: My family still lives in Alabama, and I go back every year. I love being in Alabama. Maybe now being in Chicago for almost 20 years, I identify as a southerner living in the city. I carry on the social qualities of a friendly southern person [laughs].
CGN: You have a varied art practice—woodwork, ceramics, mold making. What drew you to those types of fabrication methods and that type of art making?
AC: My dad is a carpenter and a hobbyist woodworker, but his career was psychology, and my mom was a professor and an incredible craftswoman. I absorbed my mom’s model of creativity, which is to try a bunch of different things and not necessarily finish them but to try to learn as much as I can by just going for it. My practice over the years has become an exploration of conceptual elements of what makes art art and not just craft. Do you have to be a master craftsperson or a professional artist in order to make something that resonates with people?
I make a lot of work that references the mode of making and requires a variety of different media. I just finished teaching a ceramics production class where students learned how to produce molds, think about positives and negatives, and get into a level of production rather than just handicraft as a way to multiply their output.
I got into fabrication because I’ve always liked working with other artists. I have a background in theater and gallery work. I’m a voracious learner, and I like being able to share those skills with my community. Then I end up making work about that. It’s a self-feeding cycle.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961825/zzejqwibga5f5wk6einh.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Artist’s Ladder, 2023. Photo: Jeff Perlman
CGN: Thinking about your background as an art handler and preparator—how did you get to the point where you were making work about that experience?
AC: In 2010, right before I graduated from Columbia, I was living in a storefront in West Logan Square with my partner at the time. We started a gallery called Autotelic in the space and had to build it out using the worst tools with very minimal resources. Then we started curating shows there and that meant helping other artists figure out how to install their work in our unusual space. Eventually, I gained the reputation for knowing how to do that type of work. I started getting invited to work in museums and galleries.
The Holocaust Museum was the first museum I worked at, and as difficult as that subject matter is, that experience was really important to me because I was learning more about the larger world of gallery work. As an artist working as a preparator, you’re straddling both sides of that space. You’re really seeing how the sausage is made. You’re hearing all the conversations about artists, curators, the process of exhibition making. There is a lot of information you can gather about the economics of the art world by just being the person that has the know-how to touch and handle artwork. Eventually that started feeding into my art practice because I wanted to make work that was contributing to a conversation around art as a type of job. It fueled a methodology of seeing everything in the world as the result of a long line of processes that required effort and thoughtfulness by many hands.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961826/uv5bysb5fbne30gr5czh.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Fair Warning, 2025.
CGN: The title of your recent exhibition at the Cleve Carney Museum—Live, Laugh, Lo—sorry, not Live, Laugh, Love—Live, Laugh, Labor.
AC: [Laughs] That’s what everybody does.
CGN: I love the title—it’s perfect. You incorporate humor along with thoughtful critiques about labor and value in your work. What role does humor play? How does it help you connect with your audience?
AC: One of my biggest criticisms of art with a capital A is how easily it can be overly intellectualized. I think that’s why I end up making a lot of work that references things that already exist or have some kind of real purpose. It’s important to give people a foothold so there’s an obvious place to board that train of thought. As an artist—maybe this is me getting into a sweeping argument about what artists should be—but I personally believe in intellectual accessibility. Humor is a swift way to drop defenses and allow people to come in without feeling like they are not getting the joke or not understanding. I like to make work that can hold both of those things at the same time—it’s funny on the surface level, it’s kind of cheeky, but there’s also another way to look at it that is intellectually clever. There is a joy in the attempt to “get it”. Like the satisfaction of grasping how a crossword puzzle actually works.
It’s also so much a part of my personality. I take myself seriously as an artist, but my ego isn’t at the heart of it. It’s really something that I do because I love to make things, and I love to connect with other people. My parents raised me on puns, creating those language relationships between things and people and space. Understanding a joke is the same way that we understand art, and while neither of my parents would consider themselves artists, they taught me how to think about art.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961828/gnotyfijabr7e15kb6hm.jpg\")
Andi Crist, 69 Bananas
CGN: Your work, Artist’s Ladder, explores hierarchies, workplace cultures, and institutional values. What experiences shaped your reflections on these themes?
AC: The ladder piece distinctly represents the complicated relationship between front of house, back of house, and the hierarchy of labor. Who is the artist in those relationships? How much does another person’s knowledge and expertise contribute to the success of another artist?
There are enormous, industrialized art practices out there, warehouses full of people making things, and those people are also artists. When you make work that involves other people, it’s important to acknowledge their contributions. I’ve had complicated interactions with other artists who are like, ‘Hey, do you want to collaborate with me on this thing?’ but really they just want me to make their idea. I made Artist’s Ladder while I was in grad school at UIC, and it really represented my relationship with a lot of other artists, because I could be an actual support structure for them. Then it turned into this absurd physical thing. It’s extremely overbuilt with inlaid racing stripes made of exotic hardwood, and a butcher’s block-style plaid top. It’s not really like an FU as much as it is asking for acknowledgement of my skills and the essential support structures that exist.
CGN: I want to ask you about another piece, Five O’Clock Somewhere, a wool rug that resembles a children’s play mat. I work at a library, and it reminded me of rugs I see all the time. It’s a peaceful image of an office park with a large fountain surrounded by a parking lot. I’m curious why you chose a rug as the medium to depict that image.
AC: To me the heart of that joke was that it was a landscape. I wanted it to be physically traversable. And that was, I don’t want to say controversial, but it was something that I had to talk about a lot. The critique of that work was the fact that I didn’t want to hang it on the wall and turn it into a tapestry. I really wanted it to be a rug that people could walk on. When I showed that work at Chicago Artists Coalition for the New City Breakout Artists show. There was a lot of pushback about having it on the floor and allowing people to walk on it.
That, to me, was such an important conversation, because, in my mind, the fact that you could walk across it and traverse it was part of how I was thinking about the object. Rugs are utilitarian–they are floor coverings. When you make art that doesn’t do anything, you don’t get to participate in that part of the conversation.
I enjoy sparring around art like that. I am totally tickled by the pushback. The critique of display is exciting, and sorting through the politics of utilitarianism in art spaces is fun to me. And then—it was so crazy—we ended up showing it halfway on the wall and halfway on the ground.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961829/r1zylkwfw9rkw191skdl.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Five O’Clock Somewhere, on display at Live, Laugh, Labor: Thoughts on Usefulness and Other Myths at The Cleve Carney Museum of Art, 2025.
CGN: Oh, wow.
AC: I was like, this is the epitome of compromise! I had to build a structure so that it could hang that way safely.
CGN: I would say just put it on the ground if that’s what you want to do. It’s interesting that there are still very fixed ideas about the way that art should be displayed.
AC: That preparator part of it, that’s what I’m all about. I was having that conversation about what physically supports the work or what conceptually supports it in the way that it’s shown.
CGN: Have you always been a writer? How do your art and writing practices work together?
AC: I can’t say that I’m a writer, it’s probably the same way that it can feel weird to call yourself an artist. But I feel like I’ve always been relatively good at writing. The first time I ever did any kind of professional writing was contributing, a long time ago, to a website called eHow. The editors would send me a title, and then I would have to research how to do that thing. Then I would write out step-by-step instructions for how to do that.
I think that’s how I had to make myself think through my conceptual practice—I had to do the research, coagulate that into some kind of document, and then I would have stream-of-consciousness conversations with myself. “Why are we interested in this? Why would we make it this way? What would I want to talk about if someone were to ask me about this?” It’s almost like I was pre-interviewing myself.
I think the writing is just another way for me to process that idea before I put in all of the time and energy to actually accomplish it.
CGN: What are you working on right now? What projects do you have coming up?
AC: The biggest project that I have right now is my house. My family and I suffered a major house fire on New Year’s Day. We’ve been displaced since then and are navigating rebuilding our house. It was a total loss.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961830/kekfqzf9f87fq48juogh.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Single-Use Fireplace, 2025. Photo: Mikey Mosher.
CGN: I’m so sorry to hear that.
AC: Thank you. We’re all okay, but it’s been a really tumultuous year. I moved my studio into a storefront last summer, and so most of my, at least relatively recent, work is safe, and I still have all of my materials, but my home life is starting over. I just had my first full year at this space, and it’s got a little gallery built out in the front called Coming Soon. It’s beautiful with floor-to-ceiling windows on Division and Central Park. I’ve been inviting people into the space to try things out.
After teaching the ceramics class, I came into a bunch of nice slip casting molds, and I’m making some really playful, weird, ceramic stuff. I want to be open and not put too much pressure on myself. Having a big studio by myself is very expensive, so it’s easy to want to make it feel like it’s worth it. But if for now all I can do is make it a resource for other people, then that will be the thing I do. Be less selfish, but more selfish with my time. Saying I can’t do that, or I don’t want to do that. It’s not my nature to say no—I’m such a yes man. I’m learning how to be a yes man for myself.
CGN: That makes sense after going through something so traumatic.
AC: I have an amazing support system. Our friends started a GoFundMe. It was incredible. I’m so humbled and floored by how held I felt by Chicago. I can’t help but throw a little shout out to my Chicago people. I can see how people’s lives get totally ruined by this kind of tragedy. I feel so lucky. Chicago definitely showed its love back.
CGN: For your project Coming Soon, are you bringing in other artists?
AC: My philosophy is that I want to be involved as little as possible. I am thinking about it more as a hosted than curated space. I’m actively soliciting proposals or ideas for workshops, meetings, book clubs—I’m down for making it a resource, whatever that means. I don’t want to over-think it, I want it to be an intuitive and organic thing, which is why I call it Coming Soon—it can be a placeholder for anything. It’s exciting. Taking my hands off the reins is a good exercise for me.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1788961831/gno5dhliwfnzpuaim78s.jpg\")
Andi Crist, Extension Cords, Glazed stoneware, chrome, Sizes vary 2021-present. Photo: Mikey Mosher
Fall offers a full slate of exhibitions across galleries and museums throughout the Midwest. Behind the scenes, many people in the community are working tirelessly to support artists and bring fresh perspectives to the public. We spoke with five insiders about what excites them now and what they anticipate next.
The following preview is one of five conversations that appear in CGN's Fall 2026 magazine. To receive a copy of the print edition click here.
![](\"https://res.cloudinary.com/dfafo598z/image/upload/v1789516769/izokunnmrufdyjbjnypk.jpg\")
“Intuit Art Museum’s renovated, expanded spaces give audiences the chance to connect with art through daily art-making, third Thursday Art After Work, group Slow Looks designed to provide a mindful experience with a single work and upcoming conversations with sculptor Bill Brady (Oct. 3) and Dr. Mary Trent (Oct. 15), who curated our current exhibition on the role of scrapbook-making in Henry Darger’s art.
On view is the thought-provoking Monumental: The Sculpture of Dr. Charles Smith, which encourages guests to consider the lack of historical representation of African Americans and Black people in America. Dr. Smith’s memorials champion Black history and stories of everyday life he sees missing in mainstream narratives.
This fall we’re opening an exhibition of paintings by Karla Wong, an artist who immigrated from Oaxaca and who explores themes of life and death, gender identity and self-discovery.”