Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s Fragments of Home
Hyperallergic reviews “Fragments of Home,” an exhibition of fractured portraits by Nathaniel Mary Quinn at Chicago’s National Public Housing Museum (NPHM), linking the artist’s work to memory, family, and his upbringing shaped by the Robert Taylor Homes. The NPHM opened a permanent home in early 2025 after nearly two decades as a roving institution, and it occupies the sole remaining section of the Jane Addams Homes, built in 1938. The article describes the museum’s broader narrative about US public housing, including the Chicago Housing Authority’s 1999 Plan of Transformation, which led to widespread demolition and what the museum characterizes as the largest net loss of affordable housing in US history. It highlights exhibits such as resident-loaned personal objects, reconstructed apartments representing families from different eras, and an immersive 1950s-set film using silhouette puppetry by Manual Cinema, as well as outdoor works including Andrea Carlson’s approximately 40-foot-tall (12.2 m) mural “Still Here: Zhegagoynak.”
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Museums Under Pressure, Banksy’s Price Tag