artists

critics & curators

press

programming

about

artwork

artists

critics & curators

press

programming

A site-responsive exhibition that unfolds across the city—quietly, unexpectedly, without permission.

Moving beyond the walls of galleries and institutions, uncommissioned invites artists to treat the city itself as material, context, and stage. These interventions slip into alleys, cling to construction fences, whisper from rooftops—ephemeral, unannounced, and deeply entangled with the life of the street.

This is not a show you attend. It’s one you stumble upon.

invited critics & curators

Lily H. Chumley

Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication

Lily H. Chumley

Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication

Lily H. Chumley

Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication

Lily H. Chumley

Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication

Harmen de Hoop

Street Artist

Harmen de Hoop

Street Artist

Harmen de Hoop

Street Artist

Harmen de Hoop

Street Artist

Shannon Jackson

Chair, Department of Art History, UC Berkeley

Shannon Jackson

Chair, Department of Art History, UC Berkeley

Shannon Jackson

Chair, Department of Art History, UC Berkeley

Shannon Jackson

Chair, Department of Art History, UC Berkeley

Mark Jenkins

Street Artist

Mark Jenkins

Street Artist

Mark Jenkins

Street Artist

Mark Jenkins

Street Artist

Pamela Karimi

Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell University

Pamela Karimi

Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell University

Pamela Karimi

Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell University

Pamela Karimi

Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell University

Sebastian Betancur-Montoya
By challenging the practices and hierarchies of the stagnant commissioning models, and instead, operating from an artist-centric ethos and through decentered networks of trust, I’ve found in Uncommissioned a subversive yet tender model to imagine and make different manifestations of public art possible.
Taylor Bythewood-Porter
This edition of Uncommissioned explores how invisibility, whether structural, ancestral, or poetic, can be reclaimed, embodied, or made palpable. Across these works, artists treat public space as a testing ground for grief, satire, memory, and joy. What emerges is not just a counter-monument, but a tender call to notice what has always been there.
Moko Fukuyama
TBC
Mathieu Tremblin
TBC

Sebastian Betancur-Montoya
By challenging the practices and hierarchies of the stagnant commissioning models, and instead, operating from an artist-centric ethos and through decentered networks of trust, I’ve found in Uncommissioned a subversive yet tender model to imagine and make different manifestations of public art possible.
Taylor Bythewood-Porter
This edition of Uncommissioned explores how invisibility, whether structural, ancestral, or poetic, can be reclaimed, embodied, or made palpable. Across these works, artists treat public space as a testing ground for grief, satire, memory, and joy. What emerges is not just a counter-monument, but a tender call to notice what has always been there.
Moko Fukuyama
TBC
Mathieu Tremblin
TBC

Sebastian Betancur-Montoya
By challenging the practices and hierarchies of the stagnant commissioning models, and instead, operating from an artist-centric ethos and through decentered networks of trust, I’ve found in Uncommissioned a subversive yet tender model to imagine and make different manifestations of public art possible.
Taylor Bythewood-Porter
This edition of Uncommissioned explores how invisibility, whether structural, ancestral, or poetic, can be reclaimed, embodied, or made palpable. Across these works, artists treat public space as a testing ground for grief, satire, memory, and joy. What emerges is not just a counter-monument, but a tender call to notice what has always been there.
Moko Fukuyama
TBC
Mathieu Tremblin
TBC

Sebastian Betancur-Montoya
By challenging the practices and hierarchies of the stagnant commissioning models, and instead, operating from an artist-centric ethos and through decentered networks of trust, I’ve found in Uncommissioned a subversive yet tender model to imagine and make different manifestations of public art possible.
Taylor Bythewood-Porter
This edition of Uncommissioned explores how invisibility, whether structural, ancestral, or poetic, can be reclaimed, embodied, or made palpable. Across these works, artists treat public space as a testing ground for grief, satire, memory, and joy. What emerges is not just a counter-monument, but a tender call to notice what has always been there.
Moko Fukuyama
TBC
Mathieu Tremblin
TBC

the scale of the unseen

we in numbers

4

curators

44

artists

22

cities

forms & visuals

“Insert press quote here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel metus congue, gravida nibh id, mattis turpis. Mauris dapibus tempor mollis. ”

-LA Times

“Insert press quote here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. ”

-Artnet

“Insert press quote here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel metus congue, gravida nibh id.”

-Bloomberg

“Insert press quote here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. ”

-Artnet

“Insert press quote here. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus vel metus congue, gravida nibh.”

-Art Newspaper

“Insert press quote here. Press highlights section here.”

-Carla

We look to artists who disrupt the everyday with subtle, sharp gestures. Adrian Piper’s Catalysis unsettled public space through quiet acts of presence. Erwin Wurm invited passersby into brief, absurd sculptures. Pope.L crawled through Manhattan to confront race and labor head-on. JR turned city walls into tributes to the unseen, while Paolo Cirio flipped surveillance back on power. These uninvited, thoughtful acts shape how we think about making work in public space.

While these works operate outside traditional commissions, each project is approached with care and responsibility. Artists should consider the context, audience, and impact of their intervention with an aim to foster reflection and dialogue within the public realm.

This is public art that brings attention to the unseen—creating spaces for discovery and conversation in the everyday landscape.