Ad Libitum: A project by Mariane Ibrahim

We are pleased to announce Ad Libitum, a project by Mariane Ibrahim. Featuring the work of artists and designers exploring the themes of improvisation, and materiality, and on view from April 22 – May 3, 2025, the exhibition connects the works of Nigerian painter Peter Uka, Mexico City-based photographer Darryl Richardson and London-based design Gallery FUMI.  Ad Libitum, or "at one's pleasure", will create a space of material experimentation. 

"Ad Libitum," meaning both “at one’s pleasure” and a musical call to improvisation, serves as a metaphor for the convergence of artists, designers, and friends of the gallery. The presentation unveils a celebration of friendship, collective spirit, craftmanship and cultural multiplicity.  

Gallery FUMI marks its Chicago debut by presenting a curated selection of works from its designers and artists. Max Lamb’s material explorations unfold across his series, each offering a distinctive approach to form and texture. In his Glulam series, vibrant stain dyes accentuate the layered construction of glulam wood, while his Poly series transforms polystyrene scraps with metallic spray coatings. His renowned Box series, crafted entirely from cardboard, challenges expectations and redefines material possibilities. 

Kustaa Saksi’s woven tapestries, made with Japanese Mino Washi paper and wood pulp-derived viscose, feature surreal color palettes woven into kaleidoscopic patterns inspired by dreams and Finnish mythology and folklore. JAMESPLUMB’s Copper Roots series presents winding copper forms paired with limecrete lamp-holders, while Jeremy Anderson’s illuminated sculptures from his A New Cast of Characters series merge wheel-thrown stoneware with delicately painted glazes. 

Saelia Aparicio’s wooden figures, find inspiration from classical mythology and the transformative hybrid forms found in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and pre-Columbian Meso-America - hybrids. In contrast, Sam Orlando Miller’s reflective wall sculptures, composed of layers of patinated mirror and textured glass, encourage a more distanced interaction, emphasizing the interplay of light and reflection. 

Johannes Nagel’s ceramic vessels embrace organic forms, echoing the fluidity of the natural world. He shapes the material with deep respect for its inherent limits, allowing its properties to guide the final form. Lukas Wegwerth further explores the relationship between material and nature in his Crystallization series, where salt crystals grow onto damaged ceramic vessels, inspired by the philosophy of kintsugi. This natural process alters the material, light, and perspective, mirroring organic transformations.  

Completing the selection, Eelko Moorer’s Flora Curiosa presents forms reminiscent of natural growth, emerging from a solid bronze trumpet vessel—an evocative fusion of nature and craft. Shinta Nakajima’s Acanthus XIX, also in bronze, curls and winds with a sense of weightlessness. Shaped over approximately 100 hours of thousands of rhythmic hammer strikes, Nakajima’s lyrical repetition transforms the material through a meditative process.  

Darryl Richardson’s work, JUS SOLI, or “right of the soil” is a multidisciplinary project that explores Afro-Mexican identity in the coastal communities of Costa Chica, Oaxaca, home to the largest Afro-Mexican population in the country. Despite, 1.4 million Afro-descendants living in Mexico, Afro-Mexican communities face historical marginalization as the government only officially recognizing their Black citizens in the 2020 national census after years of advocacy. Through his work, Richardson documents how the Costa Chica community navigates the duality of their African descent within the Mexican socio-political context, often using shadow and silhouette to explore the tension between visibility and invisibility-- reflecting a specific experience of Blackness tied to both historical erasure and contemporary recognition. 

In similar explorations of identity, Peter Uka’s work reflects contemplations on culture through the lens of memory and nostalgia. A Nigerian-born artist based in Cologne, he blends recollections from his 1970s upbringing in Benue, Nigeria, with contemporary elements, creating layered, emotionally resonant works. His paintings feature imagined and composite figures, incorporating historical references, personal memories, and modern influences. His new work reflects themes of interrupted conversations, memory fragmentation, and the passage of time. Through vibrant compositions and expressive gestures, Uka offers a visual meditation on how culture and memory are preserved and transformed.