maria gaspar

The demolition of a detention facility is the central component of Maria Gaspar’s presentation in Room 110, commissioned to respond to the multiple urban narratives found throughout Something Beautiful. The extended passage of time in this large-scale projection reflects on how the city is perceived from inside and outside the prison, while the ultimate destruction of the building suggests the need for realized abolition. The accompanying sculptural and photographic installations were created from debris salvaged from the site. Their open-ended configurations transform these charged materials into both mementos and poetic construction elements to build a more just future.

Having worked since 2012 with the community of the Cook County Department of Corrections, the largest single-site jail in the United States, Gaspar’s work responds to the violent conditions of the carceral system through public actions, sound broadcasts, sculptures, paintings, and videos.

Maria Gaspar is a Chicago-born interdisciplinary artist whose practice addresses issues of spatial justice to amplify, mediate, or divert structures of power through individual and collective gestures. Gaspar is the recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship for the Creative Arts, Latinx Artist Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, Frieze Impact Prize, Art Matters Award, Imagining Justice Art Grant, Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Grant, and Creative Capital Award. Gaspar has exhibited at venues including MoMA PS1, New York, NY; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; and the Abroms-Engle Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL. She is an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, holds an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.