Exhibits & Installations

In addition to our permanent display houses featuring gorgeous landscape architecture, we host a variety of dynamic exhibits and installations from Chicago-based artists, community members, and Conservatory staff. Peruse some of our most recent exhibits below, and check back for updates on our future and upcoming exhibit plans.

Knock Knock: Spring Flower Show

Knock Knock! Who’s there? The 2022 Spring Show!

The Garfield Park Conservatory’s 2022 Spring Flower Show “Knock Knock” is a fun, playful reprieve from the long Chicago winter. Beautiful blooming flowers, including tulips, hydrangeas, daffodils, and hyacinth, will be featured this year. Doors from the Rebuilding Exchange will hang among the blooms and there will be an abundance of knock knock jokes throughout the Show House.

The Spring Flower Show: Knock Knock runs February 26 through May 8, 2022.
Reservations required. Click here to book a visit.

Persian Lilies

By Dale Chihuly
See it in Aroid House

Reciprocally Prickly

By Chris Garofalo
See it in Desert House

Bulls with Maidens

Zellij Fountain

By Said Ben Adiba, Hassan Jemghili, and Jawad Rizki
See it in Horticulture Hall

Pastoral and Idyl

By Lorado Taft
See them at the top of Fern Room

Flyway

By student artists at Howe School of Excellence and Kat Powers
See it in the Community Room

A History in Photographs

Photos from the Chicago Park District Special Collections
See it in the Jensen Room

The Beacon

By Luftwerk
See it outside Palm House at night

Labyrinth

See it outside Sugar from the Sun

Serenity: Winter Flower Show

The Winter Flower Show, Serenity, evoked a feeling of tranquility to remind visitors that the natural world is a great source of calm amidst the hectic season. Pink poinsettias will help to calm anxiety, while plants with silver foliage will relax the mind. Pleasant scents will remind visitors of the outdoors, and provide aromatherapy throughout the room. New this year, the show featured many blooming flowers, which is atypical for a display during winter’s shorter days. Blossoms such as hyacinth, zinnias, salvias, and cosmos filled the room with their own brand of peace on earth.

Still Life in Real Life

The 2021 Artist’s Garden exhibit Still Life in Real Life: Charles Ethan Porter was filled with fruits and flowers that can be found in the still life paintings of African American artist Charles Ethan Porter; including strawberries, carnations, violets, sunflowers and much more. It ran from July 28 through October 17.

Spring Flower Show: Saturation

Saturation concentrates groups of blooming flowers so that visitors will be able to see and understand the wide range of hues and tints within each color and enjoy their vivid, rich and intense nuances. Saturday, February 27 through Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 9.