CHICAGO (January 21, 2026) – Intuit Art Museum, recognized worldwide as one of the few institutions dedicated solely to championing the work of self-taught artists, announces its 2026 exhibition schedule featuring a trio of vibrant solo exhibitions of pioneering experimental artists Billy Brady, Dr. Charles Smith, and Marvin Young. The Museum will also offer a refreshed installation of its renowned Henry Darger collection focusing on the influence of craftmaking on the artist’s work; plus an exhibition displaying recent gifts from the collection of Chicago art collector, curator, and advocate Jan Petry.

The recently reimagined Intuit Art Museum (IAM), 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, offers quarterly IAM Community Days inviting the public to the museum free of charge, as well as interactive programming for the entire family to enjoy. The spring IAM Community Day is Saturday, May 16, 11 am‑6 pm; museum admission and activities will be free of charge with no reservation needed. 

Solo Exhibitions

Drawing with Metal: Sculpture by Bill Brady 
April 9 to October 4, 2026 

Drawing with Metal: Sculpture by Bill Brady is the largest solo exhibition of the artist’s work outside his native Pennsylvania. Known for transforming tin-plated steel and welding rods into forms that evoke nature, machines, and whimsical abstractions, the retrospective features more than 40 dynamic sculptures alongside images from Brady’s sketchbooks. Curated by IAM Chief Curator Alison Amick, Drawing with Metal: Sculpture by Bill Brady features a selection of works from over five decades, providing insight into the imaginative sources behind the artist’s practice. 
 
Impressions of a City: Drawings by Marvin Young 
April 9 to August 23, 2026 

The City of Chicago and its people are celebrated in IAM’s exhibition of works by Chicago-based artist Marvin Young. A lifelong resident of Chicago’s South Side, Young joined Arts of Life​’s progressive studio for artists with intellectual and physical disabilities in 2024. Using graphite, colored pencil, crayon, pen, and marker, Young creates vivid drawings that reflect his community and personal history, capturing imagined and remembered urban scenes. Young’s architectural landscapes feature vintage Chicago walk-ups, brownstones, and high rises framed by bright skies and classic cars, taxi cabs, police officers, and bustling city life. Curated by IAM Assistant Curator Christina Stavros, the exhibition showcases Young’s vision and prolific practice. 
 
Monumental: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith 
April 29, 2026 to April 22, 2027

Dr. Charles Smith served as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, an experience that left lasting wounds and shaped his artistic vision. In the 1980s, he began transforming his Aurora, Ill., home into the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive—a monumental environment of nearly 600 sculptures and 150 monuments honoring African-American history and civil rights. Using found materials, Smith created life-sized figures and symbolic structures referencing slavery, the Middle Passage, and the Underground Railroad. Through the concept of anti-monumentalism, Smith critiques traditional monuments and holds space for histories often excluded from civic memory. Curated by IAM Assistant Curator Christina Stavros, Monumental: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith features pieces from the Museum’s collection alongside select loans, including several recently conserved works now on view for the first time in years. 

Other Exhibitions 

Life is an Art: The Collection of Jan Petry 
April 9, 2026 to March 21, 2027 

Life is an Art: The Collection of Jan Petry highlights 30 artworks donated to IAM by the late, long-time board member Jan Petry. Curated by IAM Chief Curator Alison Amick, the exhibition showcases paintings, drawings, and sculptures by major figures in American self-taught art, including Emery Blagdon, James Castle, Ulysses Davis, Charles Dellschau, William Hawkins, and Martín Ramírez, as well as Günther Schützenhöfer, a resident artist at Gugging, a progressive art studio in Austria.Those artworks are complemented by objects that reflect Petry’s passion for folk art, design, furniture, and maritime themes, offering a glimpse into the vision of a dedicated collector. 
 
Cutting and Pasting a World: The Paper Craft of Henry Darger 
April 22, 2026 to January 31, 2027 

IAM joins in the celebration of the 250th anniversary celebration of American craft, Handwork 2026, organized by Craft in America, with an exhibition exploring the connection between Henry Darger’s art and traditional American paper crafts. Drawing on research by guest curator and art historian Dr. Mary Trent (College of Charleston), the exhibition illustrates how the turn-of-the-century practices of making paper dolls and paper dollhouse scrapbooks may have influenced Darger’s evolution as an artist and maker. By showcasing both finished artworks and original source materials, the exhibition demonstrates how Darger adapted these humble pastimes into sophisticated methods for constructing large-scale, mixed-media narratives. The exhibition provides context for these crafts within the early 20th-century movement to instill middle-class American ​“taste” in a burgeoning immigrant population. Likely exposed to these practices within social welfare institutions as a child, Darger ultimately subverted them—transforming decorative domestic crafts into a profound and complex commentary on the vulnerabilities of marginalized children. 

About the new Intuit Art Museum 

Intuit Art Museum is recognized worldwide as one of the few institutions dedicated solely to championing the work of self-taught artists. Following a major $11 million renovation and expansion of its current facility—completed in May of 2025—Intuit has dramatically updated its exhibition, programming and learning spaces for the showcase and study of self-taught art, defined as work made by artists who often work outside the mainstream and have developed a serious artistic practice. Some artists may have faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to pursuing extensive training in the arts. 
 
Now encompassing three floors over 18,000 square feet, Intuit offers dramatically enhanced spaces that welcome its guests, including five exhibition galleries; a dedicated learning and art-making studio; a flexible community gathering space to host performances, lectures and activities; a revamped gift store featuring an array of unique, fun and artist-made products; and a reimagined Henry Darger Room and interpretive exhibition, showcasing the art and life of the iconic Chicago artist over the span of two floors. Intuit’s staff is especially proud of the physical upgrades to accommodate all guests, including a new passenger elevator, interior staircases, and an accessible and welcoming entryway. 
 
Founded in 1991 as a nonprofit, Intuit is a premier museum of self-taught art. Intuit champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. Intuit Art Museum is open 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and until 8 p.m. on third Thursdays. Admission is $20, or free for members, those 24 and younger, and those unable to pay. 
 
For more information, please visit art.org.