Arts & Entertainment

Intuit Art Museum Showcases Self-Taught Artists, Work About Migration in ‘Catalyst: Im/migration’

Pooja Pittie, who lives with muscular dystrophy, was once on a career path in accounting and finance. She reevaluated what she wanted to do with her life when her symptoms began to worsen nearly a decade ago.

“I really had to take stock of what I want to do in my life that felt a bit more purposeful, and art was something that I kept going back to,” said Pittie, who took on art as a daily practice and later transitioned to being a full-time artist. “I feel like my artistic practice allows me to just be all of me, all my identities, all at once.”

Pittie, raised in Mumbai, India, and now based in Chicago, is among nearly two dozen artists whose work is featured in Intuit Art Museum’s “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago” exhibit, which has been extended through March 22. The museum for self-taught and outsider art is hosting a “community day,” when the museum is free admission to all, on Feb. 7.

Pittie’s “What We Build to Belong,” as part of the extended exhibit, is a hand-knotted, net-like structure that allows visitors to contribute a written note, drawing or piece of string to the ever-growing work of art.

“It was really exciting to think about offering this kind of space for visitors to come and leave something of themselves,” Pittie said. “You can really just be whoever you are and want to be.”

Artist Pooja Pittie views her artwork, “What We Build to Belong,” on Dec. 17, 2025, at the Intuit Art Museum, 756 N. Milwaukee Ave., in West Town. The interactive piece has more than 500 personalized tags added by visitors, according to the museum. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

The “Catalyst” exhibit, initially unveiled alongside the Intuit Art Museum’s grand re-opening in May, aims to highlight the creative contributions of migrants and immigrants, alongside the rise of self-taught art in Chicago during the 20th century.

The 22 artists sought out for the exhibit offer works that touch on themes of belonging, labor, individual expression, bearing witness to history, assimilation and longing for homeland. The exhibit includes works across a wide range of mediums like drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, ceramics and woodcarving.

The artists represented in the “Catalyst” exhibit come from diverse cultural and work backgrounds.

Featured in the exhibit are two late artists: Tae Kwon “Thomas” Kong, who owned Kim’s Corner Food in Rogers Park, was born in North Korea and raised in South Korea, and who made collages from packing materials sold at his store; and Charles Warner, born in Prussia, now Poland, who worked as a carpenter and created wood-carved cathedral models.

“Many of these artists, sometimes their labor practice — their work to earn money — you can see that reflected in the materials that they’re using or their techniques,” said Dana Boutin, independent curator and “Catalyst” co-curator.

Artist Charles Warner, born in Prussia, now Poland, worked as a carpenter and created a wood-carved cathedral model that is on display at the Intuit Art Museum’s “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago” exhibit, extended through March 22, 2026. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)Featured in the “Catalyst” exhibit are works by the late Tae Kwon “Thomas” Kong, who owned a Kim’s Corner Food convenience store in Rogers Park, and was born in North Korea and raised in South Korea. Kong made collages from packing materials sold at his store. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

Three of the artists featured in the exhibit came to Chicago from the South as part of the Great Migration: Arkansas-born sculptor Marion Perkins, Mississippi-born ceramicist Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly, and sculptor and museum-maker Charles Smith, born in Louisiana.

Intuit Art Museum chief curator Alison Amick said she and Boutin spoke with more than 200 people — artists, family members, historians, community figures — whose insight helped inform the exhibit.

“What it would mean to be an immigrant or migrant to the city was so unique to a particular individual,” Amick said. “Some of our exhibition labels have reflections from family members, or from the artists, or other writers that really add additional depth to understanding the work.”

The exhibit, opened in May and originally set to close in January, was extended due to its popularity and the ongoing importance of the topic, according to Intuit Art Museum President and CEO Debra Kerr.

Intuit Art Museum chief curator Alison Amick and independent curator Dana Boutin are co-curators of the “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago” exhibit at the Intuit Art Museum. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

A personal favorite of Kerr’s from the exhibit: the striking piece “In the Name of Progress” by Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz, a former undocumented immigrant born in Mexico who now co-owns the Evanston restaurant Zentli. The artwork depicts the exploitation of natural resources, humans and animals through a Statue of Liberty-inspired sculpture made of clay and discarded materials.

In the nearly four years it took for the exhibit to come into fruition and in the time since it opened, the exhibit took on new meaning and relevance when “Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration’s aggressive federal immigration enforcement campaign in the Chicago area, began to unfold and escalate.

“We knew that this would be a timely topic,” Kerr said about the exhibit. “I don’t think that we had any idea how timely it would be at this exact moment.”

Pittie viewed her interactive artwork, “What We Build to Belong,” several times throughout the length of the exhibit and saw the times reflected in the piece.

“I have visited the piece during certain times where there was a lot of tension in the city,” Pittie said. “It’s probably the most contemporary-relevant piece that I’ve made, political piece that I’ve made.”

The piece has more than 500 personalized tags added by visitors, according to the museum.

Mexican-born artist Alfonso “Piloto” Nieves Ruiz’s “In the Name of Progress” is on display at the Intuit Art Museum’s “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago” exhibit. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

The Intuit Art Museum, located at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. in West Town, champions the work of self-taught artists, those who create art outside of the mainstream art world. That includes people who didn’t go to art school due to economic, social or geographic barriers.

Intuit offers a place for self-taught artists to get exposure and see their work in a museum setting. It showcases people who might otherwise be overlooked by traditional art museums.

“Chicago is recognized around the world in self-taught art circles as the first place in the United States to really embrace self-taught art as a legitimate genre of art,” Kerr said. “In more recent years there’s been more of a focus on classically trained artists, and even more recently, finally, these self-taught artists are finding their ways back into museum settings, and Intuit is part of that movement to get that visibility for these artists.”

Intuit Art Museum, formerly known as the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, reopened its doors in May following a nearly two-year, $11 million renovation and expansion.

The museum now encompasses three floors at more than 18,000 square feet, tripling the size of its space. There are also accessibility upgrades, a learning and art-making studio, and a flexible community gathering space.

“If someone comes into this museum and they don’t come from a museum-going culture, they’ve never been to a museum before, I want them to feel really welcomed,” Kerr said. “I want them to feel like this is a space for them.”

The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and until 8 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month. Admission is $20, but free for members, those 24 and younger and those unable to pay.

Intuit Art Museum chief curator Alison Amick speaks about the artwork on display in the “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago” exhibit, which features work related to migration from nearly two dozen self-taught artists. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)

WTTW News arts coverage is supported by the JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund of the DuPage Foundation.

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Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]

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