Inside an unassuming Logan Square walk-up, something revolutionary is happening. Unda.m. 93, a domestic gallery started in July 2024, is disregarding institutional contemporary art norms by celebrating radical novelty. Allegra Harvard and Parker Davis, the Chicago artists who run Unda.m. 93, hope to inject visitors with a “mind virus,” infecting their audience with a sense of “emotional, irrational newness.”

Unda.m. 93
Undam93.onl, email [email protected] for address or to make an appointment

Their inspiration came during a night spent drawing and watching TV. With a suite of imaginative drawings and nowhere to show them, Harvard and Davis decided to “make something out of nothing” by founding a gallery in their living room. Ever since, Unda.m. 93 has hosted a dizzying run of eccentric, short-term exhibitions paired with memorable live programming. Last November, a closing event dazed viewers with a screening of Kasper Meltedhair’s absurdist horror film Busted Babies, featuring a kaleidoscopic array of bizarre characters in lurid scenarios. Unda.m. 93 capped off a recent show with the intimate and tactile sonic landscapes of experimental sound artist Lula Asplund, perfectly complementing the dreamlike paintings of Yifan Li.

The pair curate by seeking out the most avant-garde and fantastical expressions of the creative act with artists whose works range from psychic to cringe and trolling to tormented. After selecting artists, Harvard and Davis exhibit works of the artists’ choosing, arguing that “whatever they want to show is exactly what needs to be shown.” As a result, Unda.m. 93 presents exhibitions on the pulse of tomorrow. “A Robot Raised by Children Raised by Wolves,” a show last September, displayed portraits of characters from a comic by Nell McKeon and Harrison Wyrick depicting a future where society has progressed so far as to become medieval. Another exhibition, “Cut the Grease,” featured frenetic collages, drawings, and prints by Andy Heck Boyd, with one work marked as an “upside down mercedes-benz publication.”

While uplifting esoteric contemporary art, Harvard and Davis nevertheless retain a keen understanding of art history, surfacing subtly in creative decisions at Unda.m. 93. The gallery’s flyers, for example, are inspired by archival design work from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Similarly, early modern art and its imaginative capacity at its time of production informs the pair’s radical curatorial aptitude.

Unda.m. 93 subverts expectations of the aesthetic experience created by institutional contemporary art. Uplifting artistic production at its rawest allows the gallery to express a cryptic newness that taps into the deepest parts of consciousness. Its press releases are sites for language to embody the creative act rather than provide explanatory information, with one text featuring two hefty footnotes on image and irrelevance after an opening paragraph repeating the exhibition title “Endless House” in all caps. Opening and closing events are awkward and raucous, bringing together unusual crowds for comic readings, film screenings, musical performances, and more. With its dedicated community, new-wave curation, and idiosyncratic events, Unda.m. 93 is a mystifying portal to the future of art. 

Up next at Unda.m. 93 is an ambitious group show, bringing together over 50 artists to create small-scale works compiled into one cacophonous arrangement on the living room wall. The exhibition runs from February 9 to March 2, accompanied by a play written by Harvard. The show is sure to startle, confuse, and delight, imparting visitors with a positive mind virus they won’t be able to shake. 

“Survey“
Through 3/2: Undam93.onl, email [email protected] for address or to make an appointment, opening reception 2/9 from 6-9 PM