Two faculty members from the University of Illinois Chicago’s College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts (CADA) have been selected to share their work and vision at upcoming Biennials. While Norman Teague will debut new bespoke plastic fabrication works within the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale’s ‘Everlasting Plastics’ exhibit, Faheem Majeed will serve as Art Director for the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Teague and Majeed, assistant professors of industrial design and art respectively, have sought to “bridge the gap between academia and the civic arts, engaging students with local creative leaders and citizens to uplift and transform communities, particularly in the South Side of Chicago,” according to CADA. Beyond their academic commitments, both individuals have also “ardently advocated for artists to recognize their responsibilities as agents of social change,” the institution added.

Teague’s work will be presented within the U.S. Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, on view from May 20 to November 26, 2023. For the event, Teague has created a site-specific commission alongside four other artists and designers for the exhibition ‘Everlasting Plastics,’ which will interrogate humanity’s “fraught enmeshed kinship to plastic.”

A departure from his typical work with wood, Teague’s collection for the U.S. Pavilion explores the material possibilities of plastic. “This commission has encouraged me to step outside of my material comfort zone, to derive new creative processes and crafting techniques, and to explore the possibilities of upcycling, delivering a universal message of sustainability that will hopefully reach communities around the world,” Teague said about the exhibition.

Meanwhile, Majeed will serve as Art Director of the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial in his capacity as a founder and director of Floating Museum. Alongside his three fellow Floating Museum directors, Majeed will seek to “push CAB’s exhibition and program model to present innovative ideas that imagine and shape the future of architecture and design.” The theme of the Biennial, ‘This is a Rehearsal,’ builds on Floating Museum’s ongoing work to explore divergent interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics in expanding how we frame the relationship between humans and environments.

“At the core of my practice is collaboration and community, and this year’s iteration of CAB will allow us to expound even further on these values — and with an international audience,” Majeed said. “As with all the projects I take on individually, with my students, or as part of Floating Museum, the ultimate goal of our collective vision is to understand social connection and motivations in a way that drives lasting change in communities, both in Chicago and across the globe.”