Original Exhibition Text:

This exhibition raises questions about community, capitalism, and the complications that arise when family is added into the mix.

Since the middle of the 20th Century, economic and demographic shifts coupled with popular protests, riots, and rebellions have dramatically altered the landscape of neighborhoods in American cities. Family businesses play a unique role in urban life—frequently, but not inherently, connected to the communities in which they are situated.

The small, family-run business often exists in popular imagination as an idyllic site of friendly commercial exchange. In reality, these sites can also act as daily reminders of ethnic, social, religious, and economic difference.

This exhibition presents the work of four artists whose practices consider issues of commerce and familial relations through a variety of media. Representing a wide range of perspectives on family, many of the artists in this exhibition have made work influenced by and in collaboration with family members.

This collection of work invites viewers to reconsider the term "family business" by presenting art that explores relationships between family members, communities, and commerce. During this moment in which Chicago’s historic south side neighborhoods are experiencing increased attention from artists, developers, and even presidential foundations, people who live and work in these areas are wondering how impending changes will take shape. It is vital to ask critical questions about how these communities can define their desires and whose “business” it is to fulfill them.