What the Artist Behind Chance the Rapper’s Album Art Is Doing for Chicago

Brandon Breaux, who is perhaps best known as the artist behind Chance the Rapper’s three mixtape covers, is part of a new generation of artists and innovators who are reshaping perceptions about what is possible on Chicago’s South Side. Breaux’s oil paintings, t-shirts, and neon installations tell the story of a neighborhood, Greater Grand Crossing, that is already rich in its sense of place and community. It is grounded by architectural staples that have now reached folkloric status, like Harold’s Chicken or Pride Cleaners. And a powerful network of creative changemakers surround Breaux on the South Side: Artists and designers such as Virgil Abloh, Kerry James Marshall, Amanda Williams, Eric Williams, Theaster Gates, and, of course, Chance the Rapper. The work of some of these people, who engage in art, architecture, and social programming, stands in contrast to projects like the High Line in New York, which have been criticized for inciting gentrification through design and programming that caters to tourists more than the local community.

Their work reaches deep to reveal the profound sense of place, social capital, and cultural value that already exists in this neighborhood. It’s also driving a new Chicago narrative that has the potential to overshadow the one-dimensional, often racially charged misrepresentations of the people who live and work here. In this context, Breaux’s art weaves together the stories of this web of strong, mostly African-American, cultural forces who have become vanguards in architecture and the arts, despite years of disinvestment, and here’s why: because the place is already there and it's up to the people who know it best to reveal it. Following his presentation for the 2017 Black in Design Conference at Harvard, Brandon and I caught up to discuss his own journey towards becoming an artist rooted in the South Side: