Jean-Luc Mylayne: Mutual Regard Exhibition

In 2014, the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) received a grant for its exhibition Jean-Luc Mylayne: Mutual Regard, scheduled to be on view at the AIC and the Arts Club Chicago from May to August 2015.

Envisioned as twin exhibitions, Mutual Regard will feature Mylayne’s captivating color photographs of birds that unite inside culture with outside nature and two Chicago institutions with profound ties to each other. In addition, plans are under way for a third portion of the presentation: a chapel-like structure, designed by Chicago architects Dan Wheeler and Joy Meek, in Millennium Park. Mylayne’s work documents birds as actors in and around human communities.

As explained by the AIC, “The photographs… can take months to prepare. Week after week, Mylayne and his life partner, Myléne Mylayne, set up cumbersome camera equipment and wait until one or more of the individual birds he has previously identified – and who often seem to recognize him in turn – come to occupy the position he had imagined in his picture.”