Become part of Chicago’s portrait at 150 N Riverside Plaza. On Oct 16 & 18 from 11am–1pm, video artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo will film locals for a new public art installation at 150 Media Stream. Visit, strike a pose, and watch your portrait light up the city’s largest LED wall in a celebration of human connection. Free and open to all.

ABOUT THE WORK
Stream is a Renaissance-style silent composition of a very large crowd pausing to witness something captivating yet unnamed. Featuring over 150 individuals, including many Chicagoans, the artwork draws a frame around the notion of community and the shared experiences that make up daily life in a large city.
“How does a city heal from being separated for so long, when so much of its interactions are in person, face to face? I created this idea after waiting for my first train ride post-pandemic. It was beautiful to see faces again, to see people smile and scream and cry on the subway. I wanted to capture this feeling of beauty and anxiety.” — Gabriel Barcia-Colombo
Within the artwork, some observers stand in contemplative thought while others snap photos of the awe-inspiring subject, intentionally omitted from the screen. Are these individuals merely observing, or are they participating in something sublime, confounding, or even disturbing? Evocative of a Greek chorus, which comments on collective hopes, fears and joys, Stream turns the tables on the dynamic between spectacle and audience. Moreover, it serves as a reflection on the barometers of social connection, often overshadowed by our mobile devices and technological distractions.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gabriel Barcia-Colombo is a mixed media artist whose work focuses on collections, memorialization and the act of leaving one’s digital imprint for the next generation. His work takes the form of video sculptures, immersive performances, large scale projections and vending machines that sell human DNA. His video artwork plays upon this modern exigency in our culture to chronicle, preserve and wax nostalgic, an idea which Barcia-Colombo renders visually by “collecting” human portraits on video. Recently, Gabriel also directed the theatrical music video for David Byrne’s 2025 single “Everybody Laughs.”
Gabriel was commissioned to be the first digital artist to ever show work at the Fulton Terminal Stop with the MTA Arts & Design program in New York City. His work has been featured in the Volta, Scope, and Art Mrkt art fairs, Victoria & Albert Museum, as well as Grand Central Terminal, Times Square, and the New York Public Library. He received an Art and Technology grant from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where he created “The Hereafter Institute,” a company that questions the future of death rituals and memorials and their relationship to technology. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Gabriel served as a member of the artist advisory board at the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as the education committee member at the Museum of Art and Design. In 2012 Gabriel gave a TED talk entitled “Capturing Memories in Video Art,” and in 2014 he gave another entitled “My DNA Vending Machine” and was awarded a Senior TED fellowship.

In 2016 Gabe founded Bunker.nyc a pop up gallery showcasing emerging art made with technology. Bunker became the first pop up digital art gallery to open in the Sotheby’s Auction House in New York Summer 2017. Gabe is a New York Foundation for the Arts grant awardee and faculty member at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Social Media: @gabebc

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