An interview with 2025 Curatorial Resident Taj Richardson ahead of the opening of the group show he curated on September 4, 2026 at Chicago Artists Coalition. This spotlight series aims to serve as an intimate introduction to our residents and their work through a Q&A-style interview. Interview originally conducted on June 5, 2026 by Dana Randall, Communications and Alumni Relations Manager at Chicago Artists Coalition.
Q: How do you approach building a new exhibition from concept to installation?
A: Normally, my curatorial work starts with an open call themed around the season or to students and alumni from my job. Then the final exhibition or mag issue kind of arrives at a theme through me spending long periods of time with the work people submitted. It’s relatively contained and a little impersonal since the participating artists aren’t significantly involved with the process.
The process for this show has been pretty different since proactively conceptualizing every part of an exhibition, specifically the theme, is newer to me. The structure of this residency has allowed me to get familiar with the people I’m working with on a personal level. Our pod has had dinners and chats together throughout the residency, so we’re always pretty aware of what’s going on in everyone’s personal lives. We just had a meeting a couple days ago, and we shared our current “curriculum”, which is like, what media everyone’s consuming. Sebastian, for example, gave me an instrumental track that he listens to that helps with his improvisational mode of work. Then I immediately thought about how to emulate that while working on the show. So I’m trying to get little tidbits from everyone where I can, and place myself in their shoes. It’s a part of a bigger idea around translation for me. How can I translate this little detail I heard so I can visualize it for other people?
All that being said, the concept of the show came through a conversation the five of us had while in Rob’s studio. Once we agreed on the concept and a title, I’ve been pulling on every little string I see and letting my curiosity on the subject lead me. Now I’m a proud borrower of a dictionary of over 7,000 American English idioms, proverbs, and phrases.
Q: How has your work evolved since being in the CAC residency?
A: Since joining the residency, I’ve planned and organized more programmed events and workshops that pair with my editorial and print work. My Show & Tell Series started as an open mic to get more ephemera and stories for my mag, Write That Down!, but has evolved into a curatorial project where I’m booking featured performers and hosting them in gallery spaces. I definitely didn’t plan for or see my work evolving like this, but it’s really pushed me to explore all the ways I can redefine a space. It’s also exposed me to more performing artists and challenges around documenting their work.
Q: What are some of your biggest influences? Where do you find inspiration?
A: This is separate from the residency, but I spend a lot of my summers taking one-off workshops to either learn a new skill or learn something that could be applied to my own artistic practice. I’m really attracted to process and learning how something is made is the first way I try to connect with an artist and their work. I’ve done basket weaving with ebere agwuncha, a former CAC Resident. I’ve done papermaking with Aidan Frierson, collage workshops with kee mabin, lots of stuff like that. Their ways of teaching and relaying information has an obvious influence on the way I host workshops and events, specifically with intergenerational crowds or people with varying skill levels. It’s also great because these influences and inspirations are people I can just talk to directly.
I’d also say that I’m exploring other people’s presentations, like Mindy Seu. I followed her huge job board on Are.na back in 2020, and I’ve been following her ever since. She has a lecture series slash performance on the sexual history of the internet and I was able to see it when it travelled to the MCA a couple months ago. It’s probably the best lecture I’ve ever been to. It was engaging. It was experimental. She used the entirety of the space. She involved the audience and Instagram in ways I haven’t seen before. And most importantly, it was memorable. I’m always thinking of exciting ways to present and she’s been really helpful with that.
Q: Do you have a favorite medium to work with? What about them speaks to you?
A: Pretty much anything printmaking. Most of my experience is with intaglio and screenprinting. Again, it’s all about process work and seeing the work develop in stages. Same with the collages that I do. A lot of layering, gluing, ripping and repeating.
I don’t know if we can call ephemera a medium, but I also love organizing and arranging a display shelf. My mag always has a spread or two dedicated to the ephemera people present during our Show & Tells, so that’s a fun highlight when my team and I are working on layouts. I used to love flipping through toy catalogues and other brochures around Christmas time, so this feels like a weird extension of that.
Q: How do you think about using exhibitions to foster dialogue about social or contemporary issues?
A: Going back to presentations, exhibitions are a really unique way to express something in a digestible manner. For me, a lot of the social issues that we’re living through feel too large to get a full view of or too current to reflect on. An exhibition can push past that anxiety and suggest a place to start the conversation. I also feel like other spaces or platforms don’t allow for this type of back-and-forth conversation or interest. Other platforms can feel like they are just “reporting.” The topic gets put into a vacuum, and then not much is done with it. But in an exhibition, there are multiple touch points. People come and see the show and they think about it for a while. Then maybe they’re invited to come back to engage with the show differently, whether through a talk or a different program, something like that.
This also reminds me of how important art and pop culture is in understanding history. As much as an exhibition can make these issues digestible in the moment, they’re also contextualizing the moment for people in the future.
Q: In keeping with our values, one thing we want to do is cultivate a community of knowledge-sharing. What is something you would encourage other curators to learn about? What is something that made a difference in your career?
A: It’s great talking to other curators, because this is my first big curatorial project. I have done a lot of other stuff that’s within an institution or for a job, but this is my first larger personal professional undertaking.
As an emerging curator, it’s been very clear that I don’t know what I don’t know. Some of the simple stuff that I didn’t learn in school, but learned during the Art Handling & Gallery Prep with Clarence Ritchie workshop, was so valuable. In a roundabout way, it also changed the way I view curating. I’ve been more aware of the work I’m soliciting and how I’m presenting proposals and ideas to artists I’m getting to know.
Q: Do you have a personal philosophy relating to your practice or your life?
A: The main goal for me is to have something done rather than fully completed. The done thing might not be perfect, but it’s something I can reflect and iterate on.
Website: writethtdown.wordpress.com
Instagram: @ttylerj10
You can meet Taj and learn more about his work at the group show opening on Friday, September 4, 2026 from 5-8pm at Chicago Artists Coalition featuring Sebastian Bruno-Harris, Rob Croll, Nick D’Alessandro and Van Payne, curated by Taj Richardson.