Based at the gallery Space p11, in the Chicago Pedway, Acute Angles presents a yearlong series of exhibitions and residencies focused on interior landscapes. Though landscape is typically associated with outdoor space, it is not limited by any specific format or medium. Interior landscapes, for example, negotiate the human-nature relationship through the design of indoor spaces. As cities have recently become more densely populated and also impacted by environmental change, the capacity of interior landscapes to support functions traditionally associated with outdoor space—such as recreation, food production, and wildlife restoration—has become a subject of growing interest. The events at Space p11 explore interior landscape in the specific context of the Pedway system, itself a vital example of interior landscape threaded throughout the Loop, in downtown Chicago.

David L. Hays is the Brenton H. and Jean B. Wadsworth Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a cofounder of Acute Angles, a Chicago-based nonprofit where he is an editor of the journal Forty-Five and a director of the gallery Space p11. He holds a master’s in architecture from Princeton University and a doctorate in the history of art from Yale University. He is the editor of Landscape within Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2004) and (Non-)Essential Knowledge for (New) Architecture (306090/PAPress, 2013), and his essays have appeared in a wide range of scholarly journals, including Harvard Design Magazine, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and Polysèmes, and as chapters in numerous scholarly books.

Jonathan Solomon is an architect and a cofounder of Acute Angles, a Chicago-based nonprofit where he is an editor of the journal Forty-Five and a director of the gallery Space p11. Solomon holds a bachelor’s from Columbia University and a master’s in architecture from Princeton University and is associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His drawings and observations on the city appear in the books Cities Without Ground (ORO Editions, 2013), and 13 Projects for the Sheridan Expressway (Princeton Architectural Press, 2004). Solomon was a curator of the US Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale and an editor of the series 306090 Books for 14 years.

Acute Angles is a Chicago-based nonprofit committed to editorial, curatorial, and event-based projects in art, design, and culture. Founded in December 2014, its two main projects are Forty-Five: A Journal of Outside Research (launched September 2015) and Space p11 (launched December 2018), an independent, non-commercial gallery located in the Chicago Pedway. Forty-Five is an open-access platform for non-traditional research—meaning, work by individuals experimenting outside of institutional or disciplinary frameworks and by experts looking to address their fields in new ways. Related to that scope, Space p11 is an alternative space for emerging artists, designers, and the public in the heart of downtown Chicago. The gallery demonstrates how independent cultural programming can activate overlooked and underutilized urban spaces—in this case, a storefront within the Pedway. It offers a unique platform for experimentation, representation, and exchange by diverse individuals and organizations with a stake in public space.