Yasmin Spiro: Cornerstone
Hyde Park Art Center, the renowned non-profit hub for contemporary art located on Chicago’s vibrant South Side, announces Yasmin Spiro: Cornerstone, the first major solo exhibition of the Chicago-based Jamaican artist, and related free public programming. Inspired by Spiro’s background, the exhibition presents the artist’s ongoing exploration of the intersections between land, body, memory, and architecture, inviting the audience to contemplate the physical and psychological effects of histories of migration and colonialism. Layered with aspects of Jamaica’s ecology, architectural structures, land ownership, and socio-political history, Cornerstone emphasizes the hybridity of the island's culture and people, via immersive new works including sculptures, sound and scent work, and weavings. Yasmin Spiro: Cornerstone is curated by Allison Peters Quinn and runs from April 19 to November 2, 2025; admission is free.
The title work Cornerstone is a new, towering fort-like structure made with cast forms and textile walls designed for visitors to enter. In construction, the cornerstone refers to the first-laid stone of a building, to which all other stones are positioned in relation. Set up at the center of the gallery, the installation—created during Spiro’s 2024 Jackman Goldwasser Residency at the Art Center—connects to three surrounding bodies of work in the gallery, serving as a metaphor for home and the feeling of being grounded in an identity that is shaped by a homeland. Combining burlap, wood, rope, mixed-media cast, and ceramic forms, video, and rural sound, Spiro composes a sensorial environment that elicits comfort and belonging.
The three related bodies of work combine old and new elements from Spiro’s practice within texture, muted organic tones, and sensory-rich materials. The north end of the gallery will feature a 17 ft. long burlap weaving embedded with handmade ceramic bells, found driftwood, and rope that projects a complex lattice of shadows on the wall, offering a new perception of space. On the west wall, six mounted panels align rope compositions next to flesh-toned ceramic tiles made during Spiro’s Arts/Industry residency at Kohler Co. Finally, ropes descend from the ceiling on the south end of the gallery and extend outward, forming a suspended alternative architecture. Through these works, Spiro contemplates the fluidity of land and water, and how people’s relationship to land is shaped by migration, colonial histories, and national identity.
To the artist, buildings are not simply physical structures, but spaces that anchor human experiences, culture, and history. “Materiality is central to the meaning of the work,” explains Spiro. “The cast forms in Cornerstone create an organic, almost fossilized presence that simultaneously emerges from and erodes back into the earth, reflecting how landscapes shift and histories accumulate over time. Pigmented in shades of pink, their fleshy, shell-like tones correspond to the cast porcelain on the walls, referencing the natural landscapes of Jamaica and the layered histories embedded in them. These forms speak to the way places shape us and how we carry them within us.”
This exhibition is part of an ongoing annual series of large-scale artworks commissioned by Hyde Park Art Center, which in the past included new works by Edra Soto, Faheem Majeed, and Lan Tuazon among others. The exhibition will be documented and enhanced through a publication with essays by critic and writer Seph Rodney and curator Allison Peters Quinn. A series of public programs will offer opportunities for audiences to further engage with the exhibition. Yasmin Spiro: Cornerstone is generously supported by the Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation Research and Production Fund.
Related free public programs include:
Artist-led Exhibition Tour
Tuesday, April 22, 5:30 p.m.
Yasmin Spiro leads an exhibition tour as part of EXPO Chicago’s South Side Night.
Yasmin Spiro in conversation with Seph Rodney
Thursday, May 15, 6 p.m.
Writer and critic Seph Rodney joins Yasmin Spiro in conversation to discuss her exhibition in relation to colonial and post-colonial Caribbean culture, land, body, and identity.
Panel discussion: Geographies of Belonging: Land, Identity, and Collective Memory
Saturday, June 21, 1-2:30 p.m.
Cornerstone Performance in collaboration with Neila Ebanks
Thursday, October 9, 6 p.m.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica by a family from multiple geographies, the interdisciplinary artist Yasmin Spiro approaches cultural identity with a unique perspective. Through her sculptures and installations, she addresses issues of socio-economic imbalance within the framework of urban development and architecture – often through the lens of Caribbean culture. Spiro works in a variety of media from wood, ceramic, natural and synthetic fibers and textiles to performance and video, exploring materiality while investigating the relationship between the body, nature, and the built environment. She attended Pratt Institute and held residences at the Dora Maar Foundation, The Kohler Arts and Industry residency, Vermont Studio Center, and the Chicago Artist Coalition. She currently resides in Chicago.
ABOUT THE HYDE PARK ART CENTER
