IPMM x One Two Pru: A New Year-Long Art Rotation

Written by:

Lillie Therieau

Jan 23, 2023

Beginning in September, we launched a unique partnership with One Two Pru, the iconic Prudential Tower buildings located in the heart of the Loop. The year-long exhibition is located in the unique lobby space and open to the public, designed to connect tenants and visitors through the power of art. The art hung at One Two Pru will support IPMM’s arts programming at over 150 CPS schools.

Greer Worthington, Vice President of Culture and Hospitality for One Two Pru explains, “We’re delighted for this opportunity to partner with IPaintMyMind and to further its mission of bringing art programs to underserved communities through showcasing works of emerging artists.”

IPMM and One Two Pru began working together over this past summer, when we set up a Mural On Wheels workshop at Pru Palooza. This annual block party celebrates Chicago summer, as well as the lead up to Lollapalooza. All tenants are invited to enjoy activations, live music, food trucks, and other outdoors activities. We were excited to get to know the team at One Two Pru, as well as their amazing clients. We had a blast pulling screen prints and t-shirts in the plaza!

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As we got to know the team at One Two Pru, we learned that they were committed to a vision of accessible art and equity in arts education. Recognizing our alignment on these values, we knew we had to deepen our relationship! Check out this video produced by One Two Pru, featuring IPMM founder Evan La Ruffa, speaking on the relationship between One Two Pru and IPaintMyMind.

Cities: An Urban Landscape

One Two Pru is currently hosting the inaugural exhibition from IPMM’s collection, called Cities: An Urban Landscape. This grouping of 28 framed pieces is hung throughout their gorgeous lobby space, and features work from Evan La Ruffa, Ruben Aguirre, and Russell Muits (aka Storm Print City). Focused around the central idea of urban landscapes, all three artists borrow from the visual elements of a city.

Evan La Ruffa’s photography is like an excavation of a city street, navigating the layers of flyers, posters, advertisements, graffiti, and stickers that plaster our corners, buildings, lamp posts, and bus stops. He delights in the overlap and interplay of these imprints of visual culture, capturing the way that they’ve aged, tattered and torn. Evan says, “My work is accessible, born from the street, made in cities, and the product of one question: what does it look like from over there? “

Ruben Aguirre’s artwork exists at an intersection of styles and mediums that feels unique to Chicago, traversing murals, graffiti, and abstract painting. His style is full of bright, flat colors and swooping lines reminiscent of graffiti wildstyle lettering. Layering and texture complicates the compositions, drawing viewers’ eyes deeper into the thicket of color and expression.

Storm Print City, aka Russell Muits, likes to track down the oldest and most unique examples of municipal iron works and make them the central motif of his artwork. He loves interesting patterns, fonts, and compositions, and enhances them with beautiful color combos. The hands-on, tactile, and permanent medium of printmaking with all of its randomness and possible flaws is exciting to Russell because the finished product is often determined by chance. Sometimes the colors are randomly determined by passerby chiming in, or by the colors which are part of the surroundings. For him, each finished piece holds the memory of when it was created.

Year-Long Art Rotation at One Two Pru

Check back as the year progresses for new art rotations with unique themes. Each artist represented in IPMM’s permanent collection is an emerging print artist. We strive to have our collection represent our Chicago community, prioritizing the voices of BIPOC and queer artists. The One Two Pro lobby is open to the public, so be sure to stop by the next time you’re downtown and check out what’s new on the walls.