CHICAGO, IL.- We Are Here: Art & Design Out of Context is a month-long exhibition that features four Chicago-based multidisciplinary art and design groups that utilize the museum gallery as a workspace. The designers include: product design collective Object Design League, artist-run project space Golden Age, designers Tim Parson and Jessica Charlesworth, and screen-printers Sonnenzimmer. Visitors can interact with the artists and participate in the construction of the pieces, and observe the groups as they develop and construct smallscale pieces that are available to take home. Each design group begins their activities on a Tuesday during the month of July at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago. We Are Here is curated by James Goggin, MCA Director of Design, Print, and Digital Media.

Object Design League
July 5-10
Designers, artists, and writers Caroline Linder and Lisa Smith co-founded the Object Design League (ODL) in 2009 to help create awareness about Chicago’s blossoming product design community by hosting public exhibitions and events. The duo describe themselves as product designers, but through ODL they are known for projects that are intangible and temporal, including special events, pop-up spaces, charettes, and curated exhibitions – rather than actual products. Linder’s work has been exhibited around the U.S. and in Milan, and Smith teaches in the Contemporary Practices and Designed Objects departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Golden Age
July 12-17
Artists Marco Kane Braunschweiler and Martine Syms run Golden Age, a small yet internationally connected West Loop project space / workshop / bookstore. Golden Age hosts a variety of collaborative projects, including exhibitions, screenings, and performances, and the duo are producing an exclusive work of literature for museum visitors during their week-long performance.

Tim Parsons & Jessica Charlesworth
July 19-24
Designer and writer Tim Parsons and his partner, British designer Jessica Charlesworth, explore the idea of “American Ad Hoc,” with works based on items Americans see and use every day. For their exhibition, the designers create original works constructed of materials found throughout the museum. Parsons is Associate Professor of Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sonnenzimmer
July 26-31
Artists Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi run the screen printing workshop Sonnenzimmer where they produce creative printed art and design work. Before opening Sonnenzimmer in 2006, Butcher and Nakanishi worked with Chicago poster designer/artist Jay Ryan at his Bird Machine studio. Butcher is also an experimental musician on the record label Hometapes, while Nakanishi has exhibited her paintings at galleries in Chicago and her native Switzerland. Nakanishi co-founded the Chicago Printers Guild in 2009.