12 x 12 Artist Talk: Alex Lehnerer

About

Alex Lehnerer discusses his work during this informal gallery talk. The program is part of the MCA's monthly UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work exhibition series.

Lehnerer is an architect and urban designer. He received his PhD from the ETH in Zurich and is currently based in Chicago where he is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, School of Architecture. In 2009, he established the Department of Urban Speculation in Chicago. This quasi institution was set up to create a link between Lehnerer’s work as practicing architect and urban designer and his academic role in the same fields. According to Lehnerer, the Department’s main interests can be summarized by four central themes: the belief in speculative and constructed urban consistencies, the radical discrimination and depreciation of public spaces, the acceptance of abundance, and the possibility of control in urban design.