Chicago artist explores shifting identities in ‘Living With Modernism: Kelli Connell’ at Elmhurst Art Museum

Posted December 29, 2025 3:17 pm

Submitted by Elmhurst Art Museum

Kelli Connell’s “Double Life” exhibit features digitally created montages of the same model, Kiba Jacobson. This new commission, “This Room is Full of Clocks,” also is responding to the architecture of the Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House. Courtesy of Kelli Connell

Solo exhibition of Chicago-based artist marks final stop on U.S. tour and features new site-specific works; related programs to include book signing, talks, and workshops

This winter, the Elmhurst Art Museum presents “Living With Modernism: Kelli Connell.” Showcasing two series by the Chicago-based artist, the traveling exhibition “Pictures for Charis” responds to the iconic works of photographer Edward Weston through a queer, feminist lens.

Another major body of work — “Double Life” — explores the evolution of intimate relationships shaped by the changing nature of identity over time, and features new commissions responding to the architecture of the Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House.

The exhibition marks the largest presentation of Connell’s work in the Chicago area, placing queerness, power structures, and shifting ecologies in the 21-century in conversation with two giants of modernism, Edward Weston and Mies van der Rohe.

The exhibition is curated by Allison Peters Quinn, executive director and chief curator. It will be on display from Jan. 24 to April 26 at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave. in Elmhurst.

“The Elmhurst Art Museum is honored to present the arresting photographs of nationally acclaimed photographer Kelli Connell in the Chicagoland area, where she has rooted her art practice and mentored dozens of artists for over a decade,” Peters Quinn said. “Following its extensive U.S. tour, we have expanded the ‘Pictures for Charis’ exhibition to include newly commissioned work adding to her series ‘Double Life’.”

“Connell’s commitment to exploring the everyday moments in relationships with ourselves and loved ones encourages us to cherish both the beautiful and the difficult times in our lives,” Peters Quinn continued. “Chicago is a crucial center for contemporary photography, and we are proud to highlight this through ‘Living With Modernism’.”

An exhibition in two parts, Connell explores the psyche of human relationships and our connection to nature and architecture. The main galleries will feature 45 photographs from her series “Pictures for Charis,” a tender and emotional sequence of work placing Connell in dialogue with one of the most innovative American photographers of the 20th century, Edward Weston (1886-1958).

For this body of work, Connell revisited the locations of Weston’s black-and-white landscapes and portraits of writer Charis Wilson — his partner of 11 years — from California and the American West (1934-45), to photograph her own former longtime partner, artist Betsy Odom.

Connell’s work is presented alongside 48 original prints by Weston on loan from the Center for Creative Photography (Tucson) and text excerpts from Charis. Shining new light on Weston’s subject, Charis, the installation bridges 80 years of ecological and social shifts with a feminist perspective.

The McCormick House features the latest chapter in Connell’s ongoing series “Double Life,” which the artist began in 2002.

For this series, Connell explores long-term relationships with others and the self. The images document the fictional relationship of two women, both played by collaborator Kiba Jacobson.

Connell describes “Double Life” as “an honest representation of the fluidity of the self in regard to decisions about intimate relationships, sexuality, gender, family, belief systems, and lifestyle options.”

In “Double Life,” Kelli Connell’s large-scale color photographs, such as “Corner,” appear to document the lives of two women in a relationship, when actually these images are digitally created montages of the same model, Kiba Jacobson. Courtesy of Kelli Connell

For “Living With Modernism,” the Elmhurst Art Museum commissioned Connell to respond to the architecture of the McCormick House designed by Mies van der Rohe. Connell chose to photograph the site — and incorporate poetry from its former owner Isabella Gardner (niece of the Boston arts patron by the same name) — to generate new works adding to the “Double Life” narrative.

Connell says, “I am beyond thrilled to show ‘Pictures for Charis’ and ‘Double Life’ together at the Elmhurst Art Museum. Both projects portray my commitment to uncovering forgotten histories. Making new work in the McCormick House, a space where the work will also be shown, was a unique opportunity for me to think about architecture and its impact on people and the relationships we have with each other in these spaces.”

“Pictures for Charis” is co-organized by the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, at the University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents; the Cleveland Museum of Art; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

“Pictures for Charis” is curated for each museum by Rebecca Senf, Ph.D., chief curator at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, at the University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents; Barbara Tannenbaum, Ph.D., curator of photography and chair of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Cleveland Museum of Art; Gregory J. Harris, the Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of  Photography at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and Allison Peters Quinn, executive director and chief curator of the Elmhurst Art Museum.

This project is made possible by Teiger Foundation. Photographs by Edward Weston are courtesy of the Edward Weston Archive at the Center for Creative Photography. Additional support for Living With Modernism and related programs are provided by the Illinois Arts Council and individual donors.

About the artist

Kelli Connell is a photographer based in Chicago. Through her images, she addresses issues of sexuality, identity, and self-perception. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J Paul Getty Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, among others.

Publications include “Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis” (Aperture and Center for Creative Photography, March 2024), “PhotoWork: 40 Photographers on Process and Practice” (Aperture), Photo Art: The New World of Photography (Aperture), and the monograph “Kelli Connell: Double Life” (DECODE Books).

Connell has received fellowships and residencies from The Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, PLAYA, Peaked Hill Trust, LATITUDE, Light Work, and The Center for Creative Photography.

Kelli Connell's 2015 work titled “Surf, Point Lobos.” Courtesy of Kelli Connell

Related programs

• Opening preview reception and book signing from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24. Tickets are $23. Meet the artist and enjoy music and light bites. Members are granted early access from 6 to 7 p.m.; book signing takes place 7 to 7:30 p.m.

• “Create With Us: Kelli Connell” from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7. Included with museum admission. The exhibiting artist and photographer leads a self-portrait workshop inspired by her series “Double Life” featured in the historic McCormick House.

• Artist and Curators Talk from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4. Included with museum admission. Artist Kelli Connell, Elmhurst Art Museum Executive Director and Chief Curator Allison Peters Quinn, and Atlanta’s High Museum of Art Keough Family Curator of Photography Gregory Harris, will share their processes in making the exhibition and answer questions from the audience.

• “Late Night at the Museum” from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 25. Tickets are $20. Enjoy a glass of wine and an evening at the museum after-hours. Children, age 4-15, are invited to participate in an art-making activity in the studios while adults 21 or older view the exhibition.

• Poetry Workshop: Exploring the Works of Isabella Gardner from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 8. Tickets are $25. Isabella Gardner, renowned poet and one-time editor at Poetry, wrote numerous poems while she lived in the McCormick House. The current exhibition features a new series of photographs taken in the McCormick House that incorporate Gardner’s poetry. During National Poetry Month, enjoy a reading of Gardner’s poetry while Connell’s works are on view and an opportunity for visitors to write their own poem inspired by her work.

Kelli Connell’s 2015 archival inkjet print titled “Betsy, Lake Ediza,” is on loan from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Courtesy of Kelli Connell

The museum is open Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 5 p.m., and Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Regular admission prices are $18 for ages 18 or older; $15 for seniors, $10 for students, and $5 for children. For more information, please call (630) 834-0202 or visit elmhurstartmuseum.org.