Wrightwood 659

Wrightwood 659 Wrightwood 659 is a non-commercial gallery space in Chicago.
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Educator Insight: Jake on Lulu Molinares' "Camisa de fuerza para yo (contra)"How can craft practices function as a form ...
06/13/2026

Educator Insight: Jake on Lulu Molinares' "Camisa de fuerza para yo (contra)"

How can craft practices function as a form of resistance? Educator Jake examines how Lulu Molinares' sculpture, "Camisa de fuerza para yo (contra)" challenges societal norms through crocheted storytelling.

Jake Planer is an educator at Wrightwood 659 and is an art collector and independent curator especially interested in contemporary prints and paintings.

Images: Installation view of "Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present", at Wrightwood 659, 2026. Photo by Shanti Knight.

Installation view of "Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present", at Wrightwood 659, 2026. Photo by Shanti Knight.

Installation view of "Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present", at Wrightwood 659, 2026. Photo by Shanti Knight.

Educator Insight: Ese on Camilo Godoy's "What did they actually see?"How can the reinterpretation of histories through p...
06/12/2026

Educator Insight: Ese on Camilo Godoy's "What did they actually see?"

How can the reinterpretation of histories through performance and lens-based media disrupt colonial narratives of disenfranchised peoples? Educator Ese explores Camilo Godoy's intentional subversion of the colonial gaze in his series "What did they actually see?"

Ese Ametri Gagoh is an educator at Wrightwood 659 and Chicago based artist with focuses in photography, music production, film, and printmaking. Themes of religion, ritual, q***rness, relationships, and nature loom throughout their work, seeking to bring forth a sense of tranquility and togetherness.

Images: [Enhanced] Camilo Godoy, detail of "What did they actually see? (“Possessed”)," 2018, archival pigment print mounted on aluminum (printed 2026). Courtesy of the artist and PROXYCO Gallery, New York.

Installation view of "Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present," at Wrightwood 659, 2026. Photo by Shanti Knight.

[Enhanced] Camilo Godoy, detail of "What did they actually see? (“Deviant”)," 2018, archival pigment print mounted on aluminum (printed 2026). Courtesy of the artist and PROXYCO Gallery, New York.

[Enhanced] Camilo Godoy, "What did they actually see? (“Possessed”)," 2018, archival pigment print mounted on aluminum (printed 2026). Courtesy of the artist and PROXYCO Gallery, New York.

[Enhanced] Camilo Godoy, "What did they actually see? (“Pervert”)," 2018, archival pigment print mounted on aluminum (printed 2026). Courtesy of the artist and PROXYCO Gallery, New York.

06/10/2026

Object Chat: Will on Cinthia Marcelle's "Meditação da Ferida ou A Escola das Facas [catedral]"

What happens when museum displays are not used to preserve objects, but reveal their absence? Educator Will considers how Marcelle's work exemplifies the reality of erasure and displacement in Brazil.

Will Ramirez is an educator at Wrightwood 659 with an educational background in exhibition management and design. They work as a freelance art handler and multimedia artist.



Video by Cody Shlabaugh.

Applications Open! We are seeking enthusiastic individuals for part-time gallery staff positions at Wrightwood 659 for t...
06/09/2026

Applications Open! We are seeking enthusiastic individuals for part-time gallery staff positions at Wrightwood 659 for two dynamic exhibitions opening this fall: "Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Museum Collection," and "Everyday War: Yuan Goang-Ming."

Part-time Educators should be available to work a consistent schedule. An online training component will begin August 11 and include: research materials, study guides, an interpretive writing workshop, and virtual check-ins in the weeks leading up to the in-person training date. Applicants should be available in-person from September 23 for our on-site training session, press preview, and VIP opening.

Find the job description at the link in our bio.

Educator Insight: Eden on Martin Wong's "Self-Portrait"What does it mean to belong, and who has the authority to decide?...
06/06/2026

Educator Insight: Eden on Martin Wong's "Self-Portrait"

What does it mean to belong, and who has the authority to decide? Educator Eden examines Martin Wong’s self-fashioning of a “Chino-Latino” identity in the artist’s self-portrait.

Eden Rodriguez is an educator at Wrightwood 659 and an emerging artist exploring q***r histories and identities in contemporary art.

Images: Martin Wong, "Self-Portrait," 1993, Acrylic on canvas; Collection of SFMOMA [Purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Peggy Guggenheim]; © Martin Wong Foundation. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation and P·P·O·W, New York.

Martin Wong, detail of "Self-Portrait," 1993, Acrylic on canvas; Collection of SFMOMA [Purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Peggy Guggenheim]; © Martin Wong Foundation. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation and P·P·O·W, New York.

Martin Wong, detail of "Self-Portrait," 1993, Acrylic on canvas; Collection of SFMOMA [Purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Peggy Guggenheim]; © Martin Wong Foundation. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation and P·P·O·W, New York.

CONTENT WARNING: The following contains depictions of violence. Educator Insight: Ben on Colectivo AylluHow is history r...
06/05/2026

CONTENT WARNING: The following contains depictions of violence.

Educator Insight: Ben on Colectivo Ayllu

How is history remembered? Educator Ben considers how Colectivo Ayllu disrupts the colonial gaze through a range of media.

Ben Planer is an educator at Wrightwood 659 and an art historian and casual collector of art.

Images: Detailed installation view of “No nos culpen por lo que pasó,” 2020, lithograph, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, museum purchase with funds provided by the Penn-Mellon Just Furtures Initiative “Dispossessions in the Americas”

Detailed installation view of “No nos culpen por lo que pasó,” 2020, lithograph, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, museum purchase with funds provided by the Penn-Mellon Just Furtures Initiative “Dispossessions in the Americas”

Detailed installation view of “No nos culpen por lo que pasó,” 2020, lithograph, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, museum purchase with funds provided by the Penn-Mellon Just Furtures Initiative “Dispossessions in the Americas”

Video still of Colectivo Ayllu and Mirgantes Transgresorxs, “Beautiful Creatures,” 2019, digital video. Courtesy of Colectivo Ayllu.

Video still of Colectivo Ayllu and Mirgantes Transgresorxs, “Beautiful Creatures,” 2019, digital video. Courtesy of Colectivo Ayllu.

Did you know our newest publication comes with a free poster? Simply remove the outer cover, and you have your own Marti...
06/03/2026

Did you know our newest publication comes with a free poster? Simply remove the outer cover, and you have your own Martin Wong keepsake!

The major exhibition survey, "Martin Wong: Chinatown USA" is accompanied by a catalogue of the same name. This publication explores Martin Wong’s work and its relationship to Asian art and culture, from premodern artifacts to visions of Chinatown in New York and San Francisco. In the book, you will learn from scholars as they guide you through the thrilling world of Martin Wong.

Contributions by Zully Adler, Margo Machida, Mark Dean Johnson, Lydia Yee, Vivian Li, and Lisa Hsiao Chen.

06/03/2026

Educator Insight: Haemin on Martin Wong's "Chinese New Year Parade"

How did Martin Wong depict his childhood memories in rich and vibrant detail? Educator Haemin examines the grand collage, "Chinese New Year Parade," as a tender letter to the artist’s 7-year-old self.

Haemin Kim is an educator at Wrightwood 659 and a provenance researcher at the Art Institute of Chicago. She earned her B.A. in Art History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.

Video by Cody Schlabaugh.

Upcoming Poetry Performance "Speak the Unhearable"Wrightwood 659June 11, 6 PM“Speak the unhearable, and show the invisib...
06/02/2026

Upcoming Poetry Performance
"Speak the Unhearable"
Wrightwood 659
June 11, 6 PM

“Speak the unhearable, and show the invisible.”—Martin Wong

Responding to the work of Martin Wong, “Speak the Unhearable” is a q***rcrip performance ritual by the echodeviant poet Noa Micaela Fields and alphabet artist Nat Pyper engaging the limits of language at the edge of hearing.

From intentionally misspelled and distorted calligraphy-inspired texts to the American Sign Language fingerspelling scripts he painted above graffiti-covered buildings, Wong treated language as a mutable material across his varied practice—a trickster toeing the line between what is meant and what is understood. Taking these investigations as a point of departure, this performance gossips with ghosts and cruises language’s shifting embodiments. Like an ethereal game of telephone, Fields’s poems embrace the glitch of mishearing as a portal for transformation, remixing the mouthfeel of found language into her own captionless life. Access mischief ensues when Pyper selectively captions her poetry in the Martin Wong font from their archival typography project “A Q***r Year of Love Letters: Alphabets Against Erasure.”

Meet us in the erogenous zone of the ears for an ill-advised séance of dead letters thrashing in criss-crossed miscommunication, replete with campy wearables, 8-ball fortune-telling, deaf clubbing, and other poetic misadventures.

Purchase your ticket at the link in our bio.

Images: Martin Wong, detail of "Co-dependent No More," c. 1992, acrylic on canvas; © Martin Wong Foundation. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation and P·P·O·W, New York.

Photo by Eva Geczy.

Installation view of "Martin Wong: Chinatown USA," at Wrightwood 659, 2026. Photo by Shanti Knight.

Photo by Ang Zheng.

06/01/2026

The "Dispossessions in the Americas" Video Cycle is on now through July 18, 2026! Free to all, join us at Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church bi-weekly to experience a curated selection of groundbreaking video works.

"The Eternal Night" (La noche eterna) is a feature-length artist film by Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist Coco Fusco that dramatizes political repression and cultural censorship in post-revolutionary Cuba. Inspired by the real story of Cuban writer and former political prisoner Néstor Díaz de Villegas, the film follows three young men condemned for their beliefs and creative expression, exploring how imagination can transcend constraint under authoritarian regimes.

Set inside a prison, an incarcerated actor convinces authorities to allow film screenings, transforming a makeshift cinema into a site of social exchange and subtle resistance. Fusco blends dramatized scenes with archival footage and testimony to examine how political conformity is enforced and challenged, continuing her long-standing engagement with colonialism, power, identity, and creative agency.

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659 W. Wrightwood
Chicago, IL
60614

Opening Hours

Friday 12pm - 7pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

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+17734376601

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