Adam Brooks, born 1959, New York, New York

Mathew Wilson, born 1967, Reading, England

Live and work in Chicago, Illinois

Selected Exhibitions and Performances:

Ongoing
http://www.industryoftheordinary.com

2026
Conjugate Desire, interactive public project

2025
Materialities, Driehaus Museum, Chicago, Illinois

2024
Bert Green Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois (solo exhibition)
Not Just A Pretty Face, Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois (commission)
STNDRD, Granite City, Illinois (solo exhibition)

2023
Compound Yellow, Oak Park, Illinois (public installation)
Absurdity: In DADA We Trust, Highland Park Art Center, Highland Park, Illinois

2022
Walking Shadow: Abraham Lincoln in the Modern Imagination, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, the Springfield Art Association,
and the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, Springfield, Illinois
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow…, Design Museum, Chicago (organized)
Disclaimer, Comfort Station, Chicago, Illinois
To The Fairest, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois (performance)

2021
Not Just A Pretty Face, Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois (commission)

2020
If you've got a blacklist, I want to be on it, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (solo public performance and week-long interventions)
Ordinary Relic, site specific permanent installation, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago, Illinois

2019
A History of Anchor Graphics, Hokin Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Togetherism, Lumpen, Chicago, Illinois
Seeing the familiar for the first time, Filter, Chicago, Illinois (curated)

2018
Industry of the Ordinary – Demo(cra)tic, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, California (solo show)
Tourist/Refugee & Genuflect, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, Illinois (solo installation, performance)
Lachrymose, Daley Plaza, Chicago, Illinois (solo public performance)
Future History, WERK, Birmingham, England
Work in Progress, Chicago Artist’s Coalition, Chicago, Illinois
Demo: demolition, Demo projects, Springfield, Illinois

2017
History and Forgetting, Silent/Funny, Chicago, Illinois (solo performance sculpture and public work for the City of Chicago Year of Public Art)
There is Always an Alternative, Platform 102, Moonens Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
The Subject Is Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois
Trader, Tourist, Refugee, San Luis Obispo, California
Body Work, Loyola University Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Rapid Pulse: 5 Years, Defibrillator, Chicago, Illinois

2016
Whiskey and Kisses, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado (IOTO solo performance)
The Greenlands Project, Birmingham, England (IOTO solo residency and permanent installation)
Industry of the Ordinary, Antena, Chicago, Illinois (IOTO solo show)
Industry of the Ordinary, Chamber, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (IOTO solo show)
Prayer (for Springfield), Demo projects, Springfield, Illinois (IOTO solo show)
Nothing is Impossible, Defibrillator, Chicago, Illinois (IOTO)
Prayer (for Bentonville), Inverse Performance Festival, Northwest Arkansas
Sports in Art, Maloney Art Gallery, Morristown, New Jersey
Synapse, Inner Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

2015
Relative, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois (IOTO solo performance)
Water in Art, Water After Borders, UIC Institute for the Humanities, Chicago, Illinois

2014
Venetiaanse Gaanderijen, Ostend Pavilion, Ostend, Belgium (project identity and principal image)
Tragedy, Missoula and Ordinary, Bozeman, Montana (IOTO solo performances in Montana)
RISK: Empathy, Art and Social Practice, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (catalog available here)
I ❤️ NSA, Lumpen, Chicago, Illinois

2013
Guns and Butter, UIS Gallery, Springfield, Illinois (solo show)
Emerging Tactics, RECESS, Portland, Oregon
Good Service/Potage, Studio Gang, Chicago, Illinois
Rube Goldberg’s Ghost, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

2012
Industry of the Ordinary: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, mid-career survey, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois (solo exhibition/residency/series of performances and collaborations, ran until February 2013)
Memory Over Forgetting, Exposition Chicago opening night performance, Chicago, Illinois
Drawing Breath for Sight and Sound, Billboard Art Project, Richmond, Virginia
United Nations for Performance Series, British Consul General’s residence, Chicago, Illinois
Body Language, Thaw, Link’s Hall, Dank Haus, Chicago, Illinois
Starving Artist, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago, Illinois
Butter Raiser, Maria’s, Chicago, Illinois
Evil is Interesting, Antena, Chicago, Illinois
Arts and Crafts, Public House, Chicago, Illinois

2011
Industry of the Ordinary, Watkins College of Art, Nashville, Tennessee (solo show)
Wicker Park/Bucktown Mural Project, Chicago, Illinois (long-term installation)
Two Heads, One Goal for Mash Flob performance series at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
Whiskey and Kisses/Go-Betweens, MDW Fair, Chicago, Illinois
Normal for Visual Phrasing, Maloney Art Gallery, Morristown, New Jersey
Klein Bottle for The Search, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Disclaimer for Hang In There, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, Illinois
Prayer, Billboard Art Project, Reading, Pennsylvania
Performance Series, British Consul General’s residence, Chicago, Illinois
The Narcissism Chamber for Work With Me, A+D Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Fidel, Billboard Art Project, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Out of Site, public performance series organized by Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Chain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, California

2010
History as Idea, Nebraska State Historical Society, 1% for Art Commission, Lincoln, Nebraska (permanent installation)
Don’t Piss on Me and Tell Me It’s Raining, apexart, New York, New York
Impermanent Collection II for ORD[i]NANCE, Urban Environment Office, London, England
Spark, Defibrillator, Chicago
ACRE: Country in the City, Heaven Gallery, Chicago
X-treme Studio, A+D Gallery, Chicago
Artists in residence, Anchor Graphics, Chicago, Illinois
Visiting artist, ACRE, Steuben, Wisconsin
Hide and Seek, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

2009
Modern Wing Opening, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (solo performance)
Super Market, Northeastern Illinois University Gallery, Chicago (solo show)
39 Verbs, Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (IOTO organized)
Supermarketing, multi-site project in the United States, England, France, Italy and India
ArtChicago, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Dis/Believer: Reconciling Science and Religion in Contemporary Art, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Site/Unseen, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois (rejected)

2008
12x12, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (IOTO solo show)
Re-Work for Allan Kaprow – Art as Life, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Journeys, Chicago Public Library Public Art Commission, Chicago, Illinois (permanent installation)
Celebrity and The Peculiar, Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, Illinois (solo show) (catalog)
Reflections, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Public Address, Phaiz, Chicago. Illinois
The Drawing Show, Beverly Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
Distill for Off the Beaten Road, A+D Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Five Years on the Run, Orleans St. Gallery, St. Charles, Illinois
ArtXposium, West Chicago, Illinois

2007
Mapping the Self, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Imaginary Time, Waterloo Center for the Arts, Waterloo, Iowa (solo performance)
Secure for Site/Unseen, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois
Approach (curated by Research and Development), Ai Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
The Illusion of Hierarchy for D.I.Y., A+D Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
ArtChicago, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
The Art World is Flat, Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago, Illinois
The Nature of Art, Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Indiana
God’s Punk, Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois

2006
Faith: Industry of the Ordinary, University of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois (solo show)
Ruby Satellite, UCR/California Museum of Photography, Riverside, California
Smoke and Mirrors: Photography and Performance, Ohio University Art Gallery, Athens, Ohio
Attaining The Summit/Empire/Epilation/Batter for Takeover, Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois
Manual Labor for Intimate and Epic, Lurie Garden, Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois
Basel Miami, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Miami, Florida
Fancy Dress Ball, Links Hall Exhibition Space, Chicago, Illinois (solo performance)
Society For Contemporary Art Auction, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Ballroom Blitz, James Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
@rtNight, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois

2005
PAC Edge Performance Festival, Performing Arts Chicago, Athenaeum Theater, Chicago, Illinois
Version>05, Chicago, Illinois
Early Adopters, Three Arts Club, Chicago, Illinois
Book Launch, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois

2004
A More Perfect Union, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Fine Words Butter No Cabbage, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
Outer Ear Festival of Sound, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, Illinois
PAC Edge Performance Festival, Performing Arts Chicago, Athenaeum Theater, Chicago, Illinois
Midwestern Photographer’s Project, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
Faith, Sonic Performance, WLUW radio station
Open Studio, Chicago Public Art Program, Chicago, Illinois
Image/Action, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois

2003
Dropping 163 lbs:Daley Plaza, Chicago, Illinois