Art & Art History
In Conversation: Finnegan Shannon, Ignacio G. Galán, & Bess Williamson
Finnegan Shannon: I wish gays hung out at places where we can sit down
Zoom
In partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, join artist Finnegan Shannon, architect Ignacio G. Galán, and design historian Bess Williamson for a conversation on how art, architecture, and design can provide increased access for people with disabilities. Shannon’s projects Don’t mind if I do and i wish gays hung out at places where we could sit down are on view through at Gallery 400 through December 13, 2025. Galán is featured in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, showcasing their installation titled Fragments of Disability Fictions. Galán is showcasing their installation titled Fragments of Disability Fictions in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, on view through Feb. 28, 2026 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Williamson is the author of Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design (NYU Press, 2019), which is the first to document the historical development of accessible design in the United States from 1945 to today.
ABOUT
Finnegan Shannon is an artist experimenting with forms of access. They are especially interested in access that intervenes in ableist structures with humor, earnestness, and rage. Their hobbies include making snack platters and looking at the sky. Some of their recent work includes Alt Text as Poetry, a collaboration with Bojana Coklyat that explores the expressive potential of image description; Do You Want Us Here or Not, a series of benches and cushions designed for exhibition spaces; and Don’t mind if I do, a conveyor-belt-centered exhibition that prioritizes rest and play.
Ignacio G. Galán is a New York-based architect, historian, and curator. His work explores and intervenes in the entanglements of architecture, politics, and the making of society, with attention to questions of residence, citizenship, belonging, and kinship. These interests manifest in design projects as much as in diverse scholarly and curatorial endeavors concerning nationalism, colonialism, migration, and disability cultures. His work operates across media and is continuously informed by different collaborations.
Dr. Bess Williamson is Associate Professor of Design Studies at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on inequities in design, particularly the history of disability activism that redesigned norms of 20th-century architecture and industrial design. She is the author of Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design and co-editor, with Elizabeth Guffey, of Making Disability Modern: Design Histories.