Beyond the Grid is Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park’s ongoing art series—an evolving showcase of contemporary artists, immersive installations, and creative exchange. Located on the hotel’s B1 level within the Chicago Pedway, the series brings together local and global talent across disciplines, inviting guests and visitors to experience art in motion.
Each residency transforms the space with new perspectives, while live activations, artist interactions, and community-driven partnerships deepen the connection between art and audience.
What to Expect:
- Rotating artist residencies
- Live art experiences
- Meet-the-artist moments
- Community and philanthropic partnerships
Beyond the Grid is designed to be more than an exhibition—it’s a platform for creativity, connection, and cultural storytelling.
Now on View: No Two Alike
For the fall season Fairmont Chicago welcomes Chicago-based Puerto Rican artist Raspy Rivera (@raspyrivera), whose vibrant paintings explore individuality, human connection and the freedom of embracing who we are.
Raspy is known for her distinctive interpretations of the human face. No two are alike. Inspired by the people around her, her expressive figures celebrate difference rather than uniformity, inviting viewers to recognize something of themselves in the faces she creates. Color is central to this language. Bold, joyful and instinctive, Raspy’s palette transforms individuality into something to be celebrated, bringing an immediate sense of optimism and energy.
Raspy’s works will transform Fairmont’s portion of the Chicago Pedway into a vibrant gallery, while an Artist Residency and live painting activation will bring her creative process into the hotel itself. Guests will have the opportunity to encounter not only finished works of art, but also the spontaneity, experimentation and surrender that are integral to Raspy’s practice.
During her residency, Raspy will create a new work live in the Fairmont lobby, allowing guests to witness a painting evolve from blank canvas to finished work. The completed piece will take on a second life beyond the exhibition: it will be reserved for Fairmont Chicago’s 2027 fundraiser benefiting The Simple Good, connecting the act of making art with the program’s broader commitment to community.
Previously Featured Artists
Fontaine Scarelli (@scarellifinearts) is a Chicago-based contemporary abstract expressionist painter known for large-scale works that exist between psychological landscape, cinematic atmosphere, and emotional architecture. Working primarily in oil, Scarelli creates paintings that feel less like static objects and more like transmissions pulled from memory, time distortion, and human tension.
Liz Flores (@lizitto) is a Chicago-based painter and muralist deeply influenced by the everyday human experience, storytelling, and the female body. Flores, who grew up in Berwyn, IL, made the leap from corporate America into the art world ten years ago. Working primarily with acrylic paint on canvas, her work is a representation of the human condition through lines, shapes, and abstract figures. It’s a reaction to life, an emotion, or a memory and is driven by her interests in community, womanhood, and Latinidad.
Carina Vargas-Nuñez (@cari_na_vn) is a multidisciplinary artist working in paint and textile, based in Chicago, IL. Their work has been featured at The Other Art Fair, the Overture Center for the Arts, and the Bridgeport Arts Center, and they have completed residencies in Cuba and Chicago. Drawing on symbolism and magic realism, Carina’s work is shaped by stories of their family’s migration from Cuba, their journey with queerness, and their personal relationship to cultural mythology and spirituality.
Cheri Charlton (@chersugarlee) is a Chicago-based illustrator, muralist, and educator whose work explores the beauty of the natural world through a graphic, colorful, and whimsical style. She has been painting murals for over ten years and is the artist behind Curious Bunny, the largest mural painted by a woman in Chicago. Charlton is an Assistant Professor of Illustration at Columbia College Chicago, where she teaches illustration, painting, and mural courses.
Amy Donaldson (@donaldson_fine_art) is a painter native to Jacksonville Beach, Florida, now living and working in Redding, California. Over the course of her career, she has exhibited internationally, from London to New York, Chicago, and California, including a 2016 solo show in Paris, the Brussels Art Fair, Art Basel Miami, and the Illinois State Museum. Working in crushed, natural pigments fused with oil paint, Donaldson builds her compositions through a freely expressive, sculptural process — layering marks across the canvas, scraping them back, then building up again.
Additional Information
Additional artist residencies, exhibitions, and interactive experiences will be announced on a rolling basis, reinforcing the series’ mission to push creative boundaries, foster meaningful connections, and shine a spotlight on a city that thrives on creativity. As part of Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park’s commitment to delivering unparalleled experiences for both guests and locals, the series is designed to be provocative, immersive, and truly one-of-a-kind, going beyond the art itself.
Local artists interested in participating or learning more are encouraged to reach out directly to Art Curator Peggy Sparks of Artists Proof, by emailing [email protected].
