CHICAGO, IL.- Two very different and equally stimulating exhibitions open at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago on Friday, September 25, 2026. Each fulfills Wrightwood 659’s commitment to present socially engaged and compelling art which resonates with our time.

Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Collection features the work of three trailblazing women artists who rose to international acclaim for their distinct approaches to perception and embodiment: Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929), Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002), and Mary Bauermeister (1934–2023). Born in Japan, France, and Germany, respectively, within five years from 1929 to 1934, all three artists rejected cultural archetypes traditionally imposed on women and made their way to New York by the early 1960s.


Kusama in Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field. Installation view, Floor Show at Richard Castellane Gallery, New York, 1965. � YAYOI KUSAMA.

These artists came of age in a period defined by economic instability and the rise of fascism. They lived through the devastation of the Second World War in their respective countries, leading them to engage with the fragments of buildings, culture, and spirit left behind. Amid the destruction they constructed something new. By developing highly personal visual languages characterized by expansive proliferations of pattern and repetition, these artists contributed to the flourishing movements of the postwar avant-garde, including Neo-Dada, Abstract Expressionism, Fluxus and Pop art. Seen together, their artwork attests to the strength of a generation of female artists who achieved acclaim against great odds, forever altering the trajectory of twentieth-century art.

Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Collection is curated by Betsy Johnson, assistant curator at the Hirshhorn and presented by Halsted A&A Foundation at Wrightwood 659.

The focused exhibition presents two of Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms—her first and one of her more recent—and the large sculpture Pumpkin (2016); three of Bauermeister’s intricate optical and stone-laden assemblages; and a large-scale mixed-media collage and works on paper by Saint Phalle. Together, these artworks illustrate how ways of artmaking can overlap and converge by exploring the possibilities of pattern and tapping into the latent expressiveness of repetition.

“The Hirshhorn is eager to deepen our relationship with Wrightwood 659 by loaning artworks from the national collection that have captivated audiences on the National Mall. These works expand global throughlines as they underline the importance of woman artists at the vanguard and the foresight of our foundational donor,” said Melissa Chiu, Director, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

This focused presentation features works drawn from the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the national museum of modern and contemporary art, in Washington, DC. Founded by an act of Congress and opened to the public in 1974, the Hirshhorn presents groundbreaking exhibitions and programs featuring the most important global art and artists of our time.


Yuan Goang-Ming, Still from Everyday War, 2024, single-channel video with sound. � Yuan Goang-Ming. Courtesy of the artist.

Everyday War: Yuan Goang-Ming

“When I talk about ‘everyday war,’ I want to talk about life during the war, but also the war that we encounter in our lives every single day. War is not just about the physical gunfire, but also about, for example, the unequal distribution of capitalism, natural disasters, climate change, the pandemic … and everything that we encounter every day. So, in some way we are already in a state of war every single day.” – Yuan Goang-Ming

Widely recognized as a pioneer in Taiwan’s new media art scene, Yuan Goang-Ming is celebrated for his starkly poetic video and installation works reflecting the fragmented and surreal nature of contemporary life. Everyday War is based on the critically acclaimed exhibition the artist presented at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. At Wrightwood 659, the large, immersive installation will send an eerie soundscape throughout the galleries. Audio drawn from the artist’s previous works, including Prophecy (2014), will merge and collide. Glasses and dinnerware on a kinetic table will shake in response to an unseen threat while a home will be subjected to the unpredictably intrusive nature of war.

Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War is organized by Halsted A&A Foundation at Wrightwood 659, Chicago. It is adapted from the exhibition presented at the Taiwan Pavilion of the 60th Venice Biennale, curated by Abby Chen, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

Bridging personal experience and universal themes, Yuan’s films evoke precarious everyday conditions, from the stillness of empty streets during Taiwan’s annual air raid drills to the chaotic aftermath of an explosion detonated in a living room. He transforms intimate domestic spaces into powerful metaphors for widespread instability, capturing the tenor of globally turbulent times we are all witnessing.

In addition to the six works presented in Venice, a small drawing titled What Lies Beyond Us? has been added to this iteration of the exhibition. The sketch takes inspiration from a monochromatic historical photograph, dated 1951 and featuring U.S military officials witnessing a nuclear test explosion from Adirondack chairs.

“Yuan’s work speaks to the precise moment we’re living in,” says Curator Abby Chen. “His depiction of personal spaces as sites of both comfort and conflict resonates with audiences worldwide, particularly as we navigate increasingly unsettled times. At the same time, this exhibition is deeply personal, the manifestation of his experiences as a second-generation war refugee and a reinterpretation of the legacy of trauma as both a son and a father.”

Wrightwood 659

Wrightwood 659 hosts exhibitions on socially engaged art and architecture, on issues facing LGBTQ+ communities, and on Asian art and architecture. Located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood in a building transformed by Pritzker Prize-winner Tadao Ando, Wrightwood 659 encourages visitors to engage with pressing issues of our time in an intimate and beautiful space. Wrightwood 659 is located at 659 W. Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614. For additional information, please visit wrightwood659.org.