A black pick-up truck sped down West Chicago Avenue during the early hours of Sunday morning, August 27, before smashing head-on into Andrew Rafacz Gallery in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago. The three people inside the vehicle walked off the scene appearing unscathed at the time, leaving behind the truck that had obliterated the gallery’s enormous window front, irreparably damaged its walls and floors, and completely destroyed artist Roxanne Jackson’s eight-foot-tall sculpture.
Security footage shared by local news outlet Block Club Chicago on August 31 shows the truck smashing into the gallery at approximately 2:45am last Sunday while a small group of onlookers situated one storefront over shuffled away from the damage. Another video recorded on a home security system shows three individuals emerging from the vehicle, seemingly unharmed, and leaving the scene.
In an interview with Hyperallergic, gallerist Andrew Rafacz said that while he does not think his business was a direct target, he believes the crash was “an intentional stunt.” Rafacz added that he and his wife, gallery director Jenal Dolson, are independently gathering evidence to potentially press charges if the culprits are found.
Hyperallergic has contacted the Chicago Police Department for updates.
The gallery, which moved to the West Town neighborhood almost four years ago as the area blossoms as the city’s gallery district, is likely to remain closed for four months for repairs while Rafacz navigates through documenting damages and filing insurance claims. “The damage is catastrophic, and as of yesterday the police haven’t moved the investigation forward,” Rafacz said.
Bulldozing through Roxanne Jackson’s solo exhibition Candleholders for the Underworld, the truck demolished one of her sculptures, valued at over $22,000 according to Rafacz, and pelted the rest with shattered glass. The metal spindle foundation of the demolished “Sweet Leaf Twilight” (2023) tower was driven through the stained oak floors of the gallery and is still stuck there, jutting out of the wood by a foot and a half. In the field for over 20 years, Rafacz said that calling Jackson about the destruction of her work was “truly at the bottom of the list of phone calls he ever wanted to make.”
On top of the damages to Jackson’s work, Rafacz said that the crash delivered a major blow to artists Michael Bühler-Rose, whose concurrent solo show Cuts You Up had to be cut short, and Shaun Leonardo, whose solo show was set to open in September but is now postponed indefinitely.
“It was a really hard call, and I didn’t make it lightly,” Rafacz said about postponing Leonardo’s exhibition rather than moving forward with it another way. “What I’ve learned is that if you try to pivot and do something less than what you were initially starting off with, inevitably it doesn’t really materialize the way it should.”
In light of the damages, indefinite closures, and loss of work and business, Rafacz and Dolson were met with an outpouring of support and solidarity from their community. “Just being reminded of all the people that have kind of come through the gallery and through my life as a result has been incredibly invigorating and frankly, their messages are what’s moving us forward,” Rafacz said.
“This [crash] is the kind of thing that probably would’ve shut me down if it happened 10 years ago,” he continued. “But this is what I know and what I love, and to have all of that support from others validates us even further.”
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