Image: Melanie Vazquez, De Flor en Flor, 2024. “Flight of Butterflies” at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Photo by Sydney Gush
“This exhibit merges nature, art, and storytelling, creating a memorable experience for all in Chicago. Local artists have adorned aluminum butterfly sculptures with original designs, expressing their unique connections to nature, and creating breathtaking larger-than-life pieces. Each butterfly is a testament to the artist, their journey, and their connection to nature, and this project uniquely intertwines artistic expression with a call to action for wildlife conservation.”
— Peggy Noetbaert Nature Musem
We had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to curate and manage Flight of Butterflies, a beautiful public art initiative highlighting nature, art and storytelling in Chicago through 29 butterfly sculptures.
Each sculpture was designed and fabricated by ChiLab Studio whom also provided space for artists to work, along with material education and resources. All artwork was installed by Terry Karpowicz Studio with ongoing advising from Michael Dimitroff.
29 Butterflies are installed throughout Chicago from July 19, 2024 - August 2025 due to wonderful partnerships with the Chicago Park District (who hosts 15 in natural areas in our south and west side parks, 4 in Lincoln Park and 1 at the Nature Museum) and The Magnificent Mile® Association (who hosts 10 on Michigan Avenue).
Artists & Organizations: Alice Hargrave, Ariée - Arts of Life, Azadeh Hussaini, Candace Hunter, Cydney Lewis, Englewood Arts Collective - JoVonna Jackson & Janell Nelson, Environmental Graphiti by Alisa Singer, Gawaapi-Negwes White, Hector Duarte, Ignite Glass, Isaac Couch, James Jankowiak, Jordan Martins, Leonard Suryajaya, Liz Flores, Luis De La Torre, Maria Burundarena, Marwen - Lab Residency, Mayumi Lake, Melanie Vazquez, Moises Salazar Tlatenchi, Nnenna Okore, Olya Salimova, RAHMAAN STATIK, Ravi Arupa - Red Line Service Lead Artist, Rubén Aguirre, Salvador Andrade Arévalo, Social Works - Kahari Black, William Estrada, Yvette Mayorga.
Chicago Board of Trade Building
CNL Projects worked with Gensler and R2 to curate and manage the commission of Golden Hour – Yellow Light to Dark, a dynamic ceiling mural installation by Luftwerk for the iconic Chicago Board of Trade building.
Yellow Light to Dark responds to the Chicago Board of Trade building’s iconic Art Deco style with the ceiling mural’s perspective gradient of yellow. The color system for this mural follows the tradition of the Art Deco palette which referred to ancient Egypt for its color, specifically in its use of gold using orpiment. Orpiment is a rich deep yellow from the mineral auripigmentum (“aurum” meaning gold and “pigmentum" meaning pigment). Yellow Light to Dark uses Cadmium Yellow which is the modern replacement of orpiment.
Image: Installation progress shot at the Chicago Board of Trade Building of Luftwerk’s Golden Hour – Yellow Light to Dark, 2024.
Ryan! Fedderson, Biological Ethos, 2023.
U.S. Bank Center Seattle
CNL’s relationship with EQ Office expanded to the city of Seattle where we had the privilege of working alongside their dynamic teams to design a public art collection at the U.S Bank Center. EQ Office’s vision, as well as boutique architecture firm SkB’s intentional design of the building served as the initial jumping off point to center the curation of the art collection. From the very start, we saw the art collection as an exciting way to further draw various publics to this notable building as an art destination. Furthermore, the collection needed to encapsulate the importance of this historic landmark building, its highly curated design, bespoke craftsmanship and repositioning as a welcoming, energetic space to gather and connect with one another.
Many months of research, followed by visits to Seattle’s museums and conversations with key cultural producers, gallerists, and makers led to this inspiring collection comprised of all Pacific Northwest artists, many whom still call Seattle home. Consisting of site-specific installations, commissions, and acquisitions, USBC’s art collection is a celebration of Seattle’s rich, cultural diversity; its vibrant and creative art scene; its dynamic, urban energy; and lush, ecological landscape. While housed at the USBC, this art collection belongs to the people of Seattle and intended to create moments of contemplation, connection, inspiration and pride for the beauty of the city and each one of you that defines it.
olafur eliasson at willis tower
In collaboration with CNL Projects, EQ Office commissioned the globally-renowned artist Olafur Eliasson’s stunning installation, Atmospheric Wave Wall, on the Jackson Blvd. exterior wall of Willis Tower. After three years, this permanent sculpture was announced in January of 2021. The installation is the capstone of EQ Office’s commitment to art at Willis Tower, and is the culmination of the company’s Art of the Neighborhood program as a cultural give-back to the city of Chicago.
Olafur Eliassons, Atmospheric Wave Wall, 2020.
Atmospheric Wave Wall uniquely contributes to the City’s collection of public art and provides a safe and accessible opportunity for folks to experience the work in person. Given the isolating and challenging times, connecting to art outside the current virtual landscape is incredibly meaningful and necessary.
True to Eliasson’s style, the sculpture creates a dynamic experience that is activated by the motion of people walking, driving or biking past; by the motion of the earth in relation to the sun as light moves across it; and by changes in the season and weather. This beautifully massive piece, which took approximately eight weeks to complete, measures roughly 30’ x 60’ and covers the exterior Jackson Blvd. wall with a pattern of 1,963 metal tiles. The pattern is based on Penrose tiling, an approach discovered by mathematician and physicist Sir Roger Penrose in the 1970s that produces a system of non-periodic tiling that is based on five-fold symmetry.
Each tile is curved, like a fragment of the inner surface of a sphere, and the main blue, deep green and white tones were inspired by the surfaces of nearby Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. The concave shapes and colors of the tiles produce a dynamic effect when visitors walk around it. Seen from certain angles, the pattern reveals a vortex that seems to twist and accelerate in response to viewers’ movements. The powder-coated steel catches the light of the sun, and the concave surfaces collect shadows that shift as the day progresses. At night, the piece is lit from behind so flashes of light escape through the interstices between the tiles. As viewers move, the pattern of light appears to move with them, revealing the underlying geometry of the work and creating a captivating effect that activates the street around the building at night, attracting visitors at all hours.
Hear Eliasson speak on his work here.
Read what others are saying about the piece on CNL's press page.
About the artist: Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) works with sculpture, painting, photography, film, installation, and digital media. His art is driven by his interests in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self and community. Not limited to the confines of the museum and gallery, his practice engages the public through architectural projects, interventions in civic space, arts education, policy-making, and climate action. Eliasson is internationally-renowned for his public installations that challenge the way we perceive and co-create our environments.
Jacob Hashimoto, In the Hear of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust, 2019.
WILLIS TOWER AT WACKER LOBBY
In collaboration with CNL Projects, EQ Office commissioned renowned artist Jacob Hashimoto's site-specific installation, In the Heart of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust at the Willis Tower’s Wacker Lobby.
CNL worked very closely with artist Jacob Hashimoto and Rhona Hoffman Gallery to commission this breathtaking work of art. The site-specific sculpture features 7,000, individual kite-like disks strategically positioned to create the effect of a cloud-like, faceted mass that reflects the warm, atmospheric tones of the Chicago sky.
The graphics are printed on rice paper embedded in resin to create a stained glass-like disc that allows light to permeate. Each disc is installed at varying heights, creating a sense that this beautiful cloud is undulating throughout the space. This dynamic artwork changes pending the time of day and vantage point, inspiring elements of discovery and surprise with each experience.
E(art)H Chicago
CNL Projects served as the art advisor for a new initiative called, E(art)H Chicago. This important project provided nearly $700,000 in grant funds to support the creation of 12 artworks across 12 Chicago neighborhoods in order to inspire new ways of thinking about Chicagoans’ responsibility to our communities, our city, and our planet.
Leonard Suryajaya, Homebound, 2023. Sculpture. Photo: ANF Chicago
Adrian Wong, Oogenesis, 2022.
OOgenesis
CNL Projects worked with artist Adrian Wong and the Chicago Park District to place “Oogenesis” in Nichols Park.
350 N ORLEANS
CNL Projects worked with Chicago artist Ruben Aguirre on two installations for EQ Office’s 350 N Orleans building.
The first involved creating a one-of-a-kind, site-specific artwork for the beautifully designed River Room lounge and meeting space. In researching the site, the artist felt it was important to both recognize and honor the history of the building as a former textile facility. The result is a large-scale, abstract interpretation of fabric, painted directly on the wall and intended to highlight texture, color, folds, patterns and light. The artist views the work as a painted collage, mimicking a fabric’s folds, ripples and movement. He sees textiles as reflective of movement and conductors of energy with the ability to reveal historical references, traditions and stories.
For the second project, Aguirre created the paintings Reinterpreted Landscapes 1–3 for public spaces in the building’s lobby. Both playful and constructed, these works are a series of layers inspired by earth-like elements such as water, sky, rain, and stone. With gestural and calculated spray strokes, they are composed as reinterpreted landscapes. Revealing every layer of the process, like an excavation, the bottom layers peek out and present the illusion that we can see through and between colors. With the medium of spray paint suggestive of graffiti and action painting, each layer builds upon the next, straddling the line of haste and control, while reinterpreting the current landscape of 350 Orleans.
11 EAST MADISON
CNL Projects collaborated with Gensler Design, Volume Gallery, and Trade Craft Crafting to home an installation by Luftwerk in the 11 East Madison building in downtown Chicago.
ART-IN-PLACE
ART-IN-PLACE is a collaboration between CNL Projects and Terrain Exhibitions that invites artists to exhibit an original work of art outside their home or from a window visible to the public. The first iteration of the project took place between May 20- August 23, 2020. As a response to the violence epidemic in the United States, CNL Projects and Terrain Exhibitions have relaunched ART-IN-PLACE for late summer 2022. Over two years after the first iteration, ART-IN-PLACE continues its efforts to bring people together to call us to action through the experience of public art. We invite artists of any medium and experience level to respond to the current state of our country by exhibiting an original work of art or performance in public. This artwork/performance will be displayed between August 15-October 15, 2022. This collective action provides artists and community members in neighborhoods throughout the country with a sense of hope and connectivity and offers opportunities to impact change fundamental to our human rights.
View 2020 participating artists here.
To learn about ART-IN-PLACE 2022, head to artinplace.net. Submissions can be made at this form.
Maria Burundarena, Silver Peninsula, Northerly Island, IL, 2022