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Design Top 5: July/August 2026 A guide to a design-filled summer.

by Vasia Rigou | June 26, 2026

by Vasia Rigou
June 26, 2026June 24, 2026Filed under:
  • Architecture
  • Designers
  • Events
  • Events/Exhibitions
  • Featured
  • Top 5 Lists
A curved modern building with a large overhang frames palm trees and flowering bushes. Two people walk underneath the overhang, and sunlight illuminates the open space. The sky is clear and blue.

Marquise do Ibirapuera (Ibirapuera Park Marquise), São Paulo, Brazil, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, 1951–54/Photo: Leonardo Finotti, 2007. © Leonardo Finotti

1
Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford: Near Eternity
(Elmhurst Art Museum)
Everyday materials become uncanny, maximalist environments that blur craft, ornament and illusion across the McCormick House and surrounding grounds.
Through August 23

2
Tanya Aguiñiga
(Volume Gallery)
The Los Angeles-based artist and designer merges craft, installation and social practice, using material as a way to explore identity, labor and interconnectedness.
Through July 25

3
Anne Frank The Exhibition
(Griffin Museum of Science and Industry)
A full-scale reconstruction of the secret Annex and more than 130 original artifacts trace a life and legacy through immersive exhibition design.
Through early 2027

4
Latinitudes: A Collection of Latin American Modern Architecture
(Graham Foundation)
More than a hundred photographs survey modern architecture across twelve Latin American cities, expanding histories often sidelined by the canon.
Through July 18

5
Joe Feddersen: Urban Drama
(Volume Gallery)
Printmaking, weaving and graphic symbolism connect contemporary life to landscape, infrastructure and Indigenous visual traditions.
Through July 25

Vasia Rigou

Greek-born Vasia Rigou is a writer, editor, and curator. Her appreciation for art began early, shaped by her family’s meticulously planned, culture-packed trips across Europe—complete with every museum stop imaginable. Much of her work, writing about visual art, design, and culture can be found at Newcity, Chicago’s leading culture publication, where she serves as editor. She also regularly contributes to Artnet News and to international magazines OnOffice and ICON. In her curatorial practice she explores themes of identity, intimacy, and belonging. You can usually find her gallery hopping around the city—occasionally with her toughest (and tiniest) critic, baby Benjamin, whose current favorite medium is finger paint. Say hi on Instagram or at rigouvasia.com.

Tagged:
  • Elmhurst Art Museum
  • Graham Foundation
  • Griffin Museum of Science and Industry)
  • Volume Gallery

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Previous Post Chicago, 2126: Gensler’s Five Speculative Visions for the City’s Next Century
Next Post Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford Transforms Familiar Design Icons into Unstable Vessels of Memory, Grief and Time
A modern, minimalist room with large windows, dark shiny floor, beige brick and wood-paneled walls, and two abstract red sculptures—one leaning against the wall, the other placed in the center. Green trees are visible outside.

Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford Transforms Familiar Design Icons into Unstable Vessels of Memory, Grief and Time The exhibition at Elmhurst Art Museum turns objects like the Barcelona Chair and the Eames splint into altered forms that feel at once recognizable and estranged.

Vasia Rigou July 10, 2026
A herd of bison grazes in a lush green field under a cloudy sky, while several birds fly overhead and perch nearby, creating a peaceful natural scene.

Design Top 5: June 2026

Vasia Rigou May 29, 2026
A tattooed person places a lace cloth over a lamp on a bedside table, which also holds a vintage rotary phone. The bed has a white cover and a pillow with a floral embroidery.

Design Top 5: May 2026

Vasia Rigou April 24, 2026
A red hardcover book with a small photo of a brick wall and green glass fragments on the front cover, lying closed on a light gray surface. White text is printed in the top left corner of the cover.

Design Top 5: April 2026

Vasia Rigou March 27, 2026

Newcity cover featuring flag pattern with shades of green and stripes.

July/August Issue

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