Ross Sawyers: The Future Still Isn’t What It Used to Be

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

Exhibition Dates: February 1 – March 7, 2026
Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM

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 artist talk on 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.

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

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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.

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Ross Sawyers: The Future Still Isn’t What It Used to Be
https://www.riversideartscenter.com/freearksculpturegarden/202602/ross/sawyers

Riverside Arts Center
32 East Quincy Street, Riverside, Illinois 60546
www.riversideartscenter.com
Gallery Hours: Thursday – Saturday, 1-5pm, Closed holidays, and between exhibitions.

For press inquiries and high-resolution images or for additional information please contact the
Exhibitions Director, Joanne Aono at jaono@riversideartscenter.com

Official Website

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