CHICAGO, IL.- The April UBS 12 x 12 exhibition focuses on architecture as Chicago-based architect and urban designer Alex Lehnerer creates a three-dimensional relief along the gallery’s walls to form a constructed urban reality. Viewers enter the gallery space -- limited to a 5 x 5 foot square -- and peer though small holes to view the reliefs as if surrounded by a three-dimensional architectural model of a continuous cityscape. Lehnerer presents his work in a site-specific installation that opens on the evening of April 1 during First Fridays at the monthly UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, and runs through May 1, 2011.

Lehnerer and his students at the University of Illinois at Chicago present the project Minor Features that looks at ubiquitous and abundantly available urban elements, or "attractions,” that are perpendicular to the road: doors, roofs, windows, lobbies, stairs, or walls. When connected, these seemingly disparate urban elements create a view of a contiguous urban reality. Lehnerer’s exhibition challenges viewers to think about how these individual elements -- often seen as unimportant -- work together to unify the cityscape. The installation explores how much control we have over urban design and challenges how we perceive architecture in an urban environment.

In 2009, Lehnerer established the Department of Urban Speculation (DeptUS), which is closely linked with the UIC School of Architecture, where his students are collaborators on this exhibition. This quasi-institution links architecture as a professional practice and as an academic pursuit. According to Lehnerer, DeptUS’s main interests can be summarized in four central themes: the belief in speculative and constructed urban consistencies; the necessity to adopt our cities' (former) public spaces; the acceptance of abundance; and the possibility of adjusting the urban designer’s control.

Lehnerer received his PhD from the ETH in Zurich and is currently an assistant professor at the UIC School of Architecture. He discusses his work in a free, informal gallery talk on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, at 6 pm.