about

Facility is a place. It’s a multi-disciplinary creative space. And it’s home to Cave Studio, Faust Special Projects, $oundsuit$hop and Facility Foundation while also serving as a creative hub for other artists, artisans, designers and architects. Additionally, Facility plays host to myriad pop-up special projects such as exhibitions, performances and fresh retail experiences.

Facility is a philosophy. It believes that art and design can create peace, build power, and change the world ... that by fostering an environment and community built from your dreams you will wake up daily within your destiny. 

Facility is an action agent. It reaches deep into our communities, employing the collective powers of art and design as a means to empowerment and social change. Facility Foundation provides scholarships and opportunities for young, promising and emerging artists, collaborations with fierce, like-minded established artists and partnering with outside, organizations and institutions to galvanize their outreach programming.

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About Nick Cave

Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives and works in Chicago, IL) is an artist, educator and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance. Cave is well known for his Soundsuits, sculptural forms based on the scale of his body, initially created in direct response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991. Soundsuits camouflage the body, masking and creating a second skin that conceals race, gender and class, forcing the viewer to look without judgment. They serve as a visual embodiment of social justice that represent both brutality and empowerment.

Throughout his practice, Cave has created spaces of memorial through combining found historical objects with contemporary dialogues on gun violence and death, underscoring the anxiety of severe trauma brought on by catastrophic loss. The figure remains central as Cave casts his own body in bronze, an extension of the performative work so critical to his oeuvre. Cave reminds us, however, that while there may be despair, there remains space for hope and renewal. From dismembered body parts stem delicate metal flowers, affirming the potential of new growth. Cave encourages a profound and compassionate analysis of violence and its effects as the path towards an ultimate metamorphosis. While Cave’s works are rooted in our current societal moment, when progress on issues of global warming, racism and gun violence (both at the hands of citizens and law enforcement) seem maddeningly stalled, he asks how we may reposition ourselves to recognize the issues, come together on a global scale, instigate change, and ultimately, heal.

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About Bob Faust

Drawing upon the language and tools of the design world and capitalizing on his expertise as a typographer, Bob Faust (b. 1967, Chicago, IL; lives and works in Chicago, IL) creates visual, visceral and contextual art experiences that inspire and/or instigate action. He is the principal and creative director for Faust, a cultural branding and communications studio as well as the studio/special projects director for artist Nick Cave where he collaborates on both exhibition design and performance works. Faustʼs non-secular approach can be seen ubiquitously applied across all his work genres, from client-based commercial work to galleries and institutions most notably through his bespoke Wallworks, which function variously as visual art installations and frameworks for personal and contemplative experiences. Faust has been recognized nationally and internationally for his creativity and clarity through many prestigious exhibitions and publications such as the Society of Typographic Arts, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, DSGN CHGO, Communication Arts, and the Chicago Design Museum.