Germane Barnes: Columnar Disorder The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago-born architect Germane Barnes explores the connections between identity and the built environment—using research, design, and activism to mine the social and political agency of architecture and uncover the spatial histories and futures of Black self-determination.

For his first solo museum exhibition, Barnes recasts the canonical foundations of Western architecture through... Show more

Chicago-born architect Germane Barnes explores the connections between identity and the built environment—using research, design, and activism to mine the social and political agency of architecture and uncover the spatial histories and futures of Black self-determination.

For his first solo museum exhibition, Barnes recasts the canonical foundations of Western architecture through the lens of the African diaspora. Critically reflecting on the enduring legacy of the Classical orders—the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian—whose distinctive columns continue to proliferate in our built environment today, Barnes upends these long-standing and ubiquitous conventions by reimagining architectural orders that are instead rooted in the Black experience, history, and values.

His project centers on the design of three new columns, which the exhibition presents through drawings, collages, and commissioned sculptural works. The Identity Column celebrates the Black body and beauty, the Labor Column considers how slavery fueled American economic growth, and the Migration Column—a meditation on the intercontinental journeys of enslaved Africans— recognizes water as a site of Black memory, loss, and selfhood.