FLXST Contemporary

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About FLXST Contemporary

FLXST Contemporary is a contemporary fine arts and photography gallery and an arts incubator in Chicago. It showcases highly-evocative and uncompromising artwork by emerging and mid-career artists; and it supports the creation and exhibition of new artwork across visual mediums. FLXST Contemporary works with and represents mainly diasporic im/migrant artists, LGBTQ-identified artists, and artists of color based in Chicago and in other parts of the country. These artists produce thoughtful, aesthetically-driven, and timely work. FLXST Contemporary puts artists, their vision, energy, and their conceptual power first. The artwork showcased at the gallery engages viewers to think, act, and to purchase artwork by the talented artists that we showcase for their collections. Buying artwork of the artists represented at FLXST Contemporary supports and nourishes the creativity and the continued artistic production of emerging artists. These are artists whose voices would otherwise be muted or silenced by the so-to-often labyrinthine processes of the art world. Artists help to keep communities and cultures alive in a multitude of ways. FLXST Contemporary functions as a creative space to amplify these artistic voices.

FLXST Contemporary calls the historic Motor Row district in the Near South Side its home (a designated landmark in the National Registry of Historic Places). Just a little over a mile south of The Art Institute of Chicago, Motor Row is a neighborhood brimming with creative possibilities as we enter into a new decade in its century-plus history. During its heyday in the earlier part of the 20th century, the Motor Row district showcased over 100 car models in showroom spaces as large as the one FLXST Contemporary is in. Just one block south on South Michigan Avenue resides the former headquarters of the Chicago Defender, a leading voice for Chicago’s African American community — the building itself is also a designated historic landmark. There is a design and artistic sensibility in the neighborhood’s historic architecture and among the people who live and work here.

FLXST Contemporary pays respect to the vibrant cultural and historical community all around its gallery space. It has integrated programming and collaborations with arts nonprofits, local artists, and the city of Chicago that will continue to foster community engagement in our neighborhood and beyond.

Jan Christian Bernabe, Ph.D. Chief Creative & Operations Director | Founder