Tala Chicago, 1644 W, Chicago, IL (2026)

04/30/2026

We are excited to welcome Cafe Masira to Tala on Saturday, May 2, 4-7PM

Masira is a Chicago-based collective hosting café pop-ups and cultural events that center Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian traditions as a way to gather and connect the diaspora while fundraising for organizations advancing critical social impact. For this iteration at Tala, “Chair Break” will be a love letter to South Asia - offering include carrom, chai, Rooh Afza lattes, mango lassi, and DJ sets by Shami Sosa () and Synchronized Swimming ()

A portion of profits goes to BRAC () - one of the world’s largest development organizations, rooted in South Asia, building futures across the region and beyond - Masira is matching all donations 1.5x.

🎟️ link in bio

04/29/2026

Full exhibition documentation of 𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 and exhibition text written by Youssef Boucetta (.boucetta) is now online 🔗 link in bio

“At the center of the exhibition is 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥² (2026), a two-channel CRT installation composed of stacked televisions facing opposite directions (referencing a retrofuturist version of Janus, the Greek god of transitions, passageways and time). Filmed with an iPhone in brainin’s childhood bathroom, the artist recites a fractured mantra “I am a Black man, I am a White man, Am I doing it right?” echoing the visceral malaise of Bruce Nauman’s installation, 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘛𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 (1987). Evoking Adrian Piper’s investigations into racial ambiguity and the complexities of blackness, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥² (2026) shows racial and gender identity as a recursive performance caught between self-affirmation and external validation. The installation’s curtains function as a skin, attempting to contain a scattered, multidirectional cry while allowing only faint traces of its sonic residue to pass through. They establish a quarantined processing zone - an interior space where identity is rehearsed, fractured, and reassembled. Like any skin, however, the membrane remains permeable, allowing materials, sounds, and gaze to cross its threshold in both directions.”

josh brainin
𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥², 2026
PVC curtains, 2 TV monitors, wood, steel ring, steel cable system,
2-channel video, color
76” x 90”

𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 is open during gallery hours Thursday - Saturday, 1-6PM

Documentation by .mov

04/29/2026

Full exhibition documentation of 𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 and exhibition text written by Youssef Boucetta (.boucetta) is now online 🔗 link in bio

“At the center of the exhibition is 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥² (2026), a two-channel CRT installation composed of stacked televisions facing opposite directions (referencing a retrofuturist version of Janus, the Greek god of transitions, passageways and time). Filmed with an iPhone in brainin’s childhood bathroom, the artist recites a fractured mantra “I am a Black man, I am a White man, Am I doing it right?” echoing the visceral malaise of Bruce Nauman’s installation, 𝘊𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘛𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 (1987). Evoking Adrian Piper’s investigations into racial ambiguity and the complexities of blackness, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥² (2026) shows racial and gender identity as a recursive performance caught between self-affirmation and external validation. The installation’s curtains function as a skin, attempting to contain a scattered, multidirectional cry while allowing only faint traces of its sonic residue to pass through. They establish a quarantined processing zone - an interior space where identity is rehearsed, fractured, and reassembled. Like any skin, however, the membrane remains permeable, allowing materials, sounds, and gaze to cross its threshold in both directions.”

josh brainin
𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥², 2026
PVC curtains, 2 TV monitors, wood, steel ring, steel cable system,
2-channel video, color
76” x 90”

𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 is open during gallery hours Thursday - Saturday, 1-6PM

Documentation by .mov

04/09/2026

Thank you Tiarra Hembrough and for featuring 𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 at Tala in this year’s EXPO top picks

We’re especially grateful for the thoughtful words of Camille Bacon (Frieze) and 🔪🔪🔪 kerry cardoza (The Chicago Reader), who reflect on josh brainin’s work as “calling upon us to retrace the artist’s own faltering footsteps away from the pursuit of a unified identity” and as “an exploration of identity formation mediated through the ubiquity of digital technology,” respectively.

𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 opens this Friday, April 10, 6-9PM and marks the gallery’s second year around the sun - join us to celebrate with cake by Hyun Jung Jun. We are also in gratitude to the incredible team that made the exhibition’s central installation, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥² possible.

Fabrication: Erica Gressman
Design: Larry Tchogninou
Curated: Youssef Boucetta

04/04/2026

Jesús Hilario-Reyes for BARELY FAIR

For the booth Jesús Hilario-Reyes presents 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘮: an arrangement of figurine sculptures that surge forward, as if clamoring toward an unseen, devotional foci. Suggesting both collective movement and enchanted ritual, the installation unfolds over a miniature dancefloor composed of three-dimensional, fractal tile scans of a dancefloor in Mexico City, extending a new iteration of the artist’s ongoing archival gesture of documenting the duration of a transportive evening of dancing through the marks and traces left by its participants.

Atop this speculative site, a swirl of figurines are situated. These sculptures reference the Caribbean carnival tradition of “Jab Jab” (derived from the French diable, meaning devil), born from the reclamation of the “Jab” as a term of othering and oppression into a festival of freedom from bo***ge. The Jab Jab is at once satire (as in, ‘If you call me the devil, then I’ll show you the devil’) and emblematic masquerade in which festival goers themselves (doused in oil and adorned with horned helmets amongst other devilish attire) become an iconography of defiance across the Afro-Carribean islands. Contextualized within this dancefloor installation, these figures begin to allude to the defiance that unfolds amidst parallel conditions of oppression within q***r and underground spaces across the world, calling our attention to the necessities of communal embodiment as a survival tactic to ensure the longevity of certain cultural practices under limiting surveillance.

Accrual Poem
Jesús Hilario-Reyes, 2026
Cast iron, resin, enamel, crude oil, matte print Dimensions Variable

Barely Fair is open from April 3-19
Mckinley Park
🔗See link in bio for tickets and schedule

03/30/2026

Tala is pleased to announce our upcoming fair participation in BARELY FAIR and Neighbors:

BARLEY FAIR
Jesús Hilario Reyes
April 3 – 19, 2026
Schedule and ticket information in bio

Neighbors
Joseph J. Greer
April 8 – 12, 2026
Ticket information forthcoming

Inquiries to [email protected]

03/26/2026

Tala is thrilled to announce 𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, the first solo exhibition by filmmaker and artist josh brainin, curated by Youssef Boucetta, opening Friday April 10, 6-9PM

𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 stages an intimacy shaped through digital language, where the self can slip, scatter, and reassemble. As such, brainin urges us to understand identity not as a fixed condition but as a space of ongoing negotiation, one that holds both disorientation and possibility.

The exhibition is a continued exploration into the mechanisms by which (un)stable selfhood is constituted. Moving away from the artist’s background in video and film, this exhibition showcases brainin’s latest experimentations into physical printmaking techniques and sculptural installations. The exhibition is split into two components: a 2-channel video installation and a series of digital collages that stage the uncanny space where the now-all-too-familiar repertoire of cellphone symbology dissolves into landscapes between the real and the virtual. Avoiding the trap of falling into either techno-pessimism or techno-optimism, brainin uses the visual language of digital user interfaces to render age-old questions of subject formation, morality and individuality, at times verging on the spiritual.

To accompany the exhibition, brainin has produced an additional 7 digital collages from his larger body of work, in a limited-edition run of 10 prints each (70 total). Extending the artist’s experiments into digital culture and imaging, the prints will be available beginning on opening night.

The opening reception for 𝐑𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 coincides with and marks the gallery’s second birthday. Join us at 7:30PM to blow candles on a birthday cake by and celebrate two years of Tala.

📍 Opening Reception: Friday 4/10, 6-9PM
On view through Jun 6, 2026
Cake cutting at 7:30PM
1644 W. Chicago Ave, #1

Flyer co-designed and printed by Stella Rae Binion ()

boucetta

Tala Chicago

04/30/2026

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