CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announced Diane Simpson: “Good for Future”, on view now through April 19, 2026. This installation brings three newly-commissioned works by Chicago-based artist Diane Simpson to Bluhm Family Terrace, placing her architectonic forms in dialogue with Chicago’s iconic skyline.

Over the last 50 years, Simpson has created works inspired by a diverse range of visual sources including clothing structures, utilitarian objects, and architecture. Working from highly detailed preparatory drawings, she develops complex geometries which she then transforms into three-dimensional objects that call into question perspective and scale. Produced entirely by hand, Simpson’s sculptures are human scaled, spatially challenging, and wonderfully strange.

“Simpson’s sculptures constantly oscillate between their three-dimensional form and their two-dimensional source, both reflecting and abstracting the wide-ranging visual material that informs her work,” says Makayla Bava, assistant curator, Modern and Contemporary Art. “Seeing these sculptures finally come to life among Chicago’s architectural landscape make for a graphically rich and complex presentation.”

Simpson initially drew the designs for the featured sculptures in the mid-1980s. On the outside of her rolled-up drawings, she wrote a note to herself: “Good for Future.” In what will be the artist’s inaugural presentation of the outdoor sculpture, this exhibition merges the past with the present and highlights Simpson’s careful craftsmanship and unique creative vision.

Diane Simpson: “Good for Future” is organized by Makayla Bava, assistant curator, Modern and Contemporary Art.