ROSS SAWYERS | THE FUTURE STILL ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE | FEBRUARY 1 – MARCH 7, 2026

The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Ross Sawyer’s solo exhibiton, The Future Still Isn’t What It Used to Be curated by Kristin Taylor in the Freeark Gallery and Sculpture Garden. Please join us for an opening reception on Sunday, February 1, 2026 from 3:00 to 6:00 PM followed by a private cocktail hour across the street at the Quincy Street Distillery. An artist talk will be held Saturday, February 21, 2026 at 2:00 PM. The exhibition will be on view Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM through March 7, 2026.

The book release of Eleven Towers by Ross Sawyers, published by Skylark Editions: Chicago, will coincide with the exhibition. Copies will be available for purchase at the Riverside Arts Center.

Opening Reception: Sunday, February 1, 2026, 3:00 – 6:00 PM
Please join us afterwards for a private cocktail hour at the Quincy Street Distillery

Exhibition Dates: February 1 – March 7, 2026

Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM

Artist Talk: Saturday, February 21, 2026, 2:00 PM

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This exhibition traces over two decades of work by Ross Sawyers, an artist who uses photography, sculpture, and drawing to explore the relationship between architecture and human aspiration. From model homes built of cardboard and wood to imagined ruins and mobile shelters, Sawyers constructs and photographs spaces that reveal the tension between collective dreams and their inevitable collapse. The exhibition showcases a sampling of works, including excerpts from an early chapter of his work titled Clear Blue, Sky, which reflects the false optimism of pre-recession housing developments, along with later chapters such as This Is the Place and The Jungle, which examine foreclosure, demolition, and alternative ways of living outside conventional homeownership. His most recent installation, After the Flood, folds together these themes into a vision of the present marked by instability and climate crisis, where rebuilding persists despite climate warning signs. Taken together, the works reveal a sustained meditation on what it means to build and to dwell, even when the ground beneath us is uncertain.

–Kristin Taylor
Curator of Academic Programs and Collections
Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago

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Ross Sawyers photographs his constructions of sculpture and drawing to explore urban domestic architecture. He has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, the Henry Art Museum in Seattle, and the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington. His work is included in numerous public and private collections, including the Hallmark Photographic Collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the Henry Art Gallery. Articles and reviews about his art include Artweek Magazine, Art Papers Magazine, FOAM International Photography Magazine, and Flash Forward. Sawyers earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography and New Media at the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Visual Art at the University of Washington. He is an Associate Professor and former Chair of the Photography Department at Columbia College Chicago.
www.rosssawyers.com

Kristin Taylor is the Curator of Academic Programs and Collections at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, where she leads the education programs and creates exhibitions primarily pulled from the museum’s permanent collection. Her notable projects include Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography (co-curated with Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, and Laura Wexler) and Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency (co-curated with Karen Irvine). Beyond the MoCP, she has organized exhibitions at Perspectives Gallery, and her writing has appeared in Panorama: Journal of the Association of Art Historians. Kristin also conceptualized and hosts the museum’s podcast, Focal Point, and teaches at Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MA in arts management from Columbia College Chicago.

Riverside Arts Center
32 East Quincy Street, Riverside, Illinois 60546
www.riversideartscenter.com

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Tags: Kristin Taylor, Riverside, Riverside Arts Center, Ross Sawyers, Ross Sawyers: The Future Still Isn't What It Used to Be, The Future Still Isn't What It Used to Be