Walk on, in, and through the canvas of renowned artist Jessica Stockholder this summer with “Color Jam”: a new installation at State and Adams. Commissioned by Chicago Loop Alliance, “Color Jam” saturates building façades, sidewalks, and crosswalks in bold colors in Chicago’s largest art installation.

In creating “Color Jam”, Stockholder envisioned a “three-dimensional painting”, spilling out of windows, through doors, and into the surrounding landscape.

“The fictive potential of surface, so thoroughly cultivated through the history of painting, is always ready to burst, spilling forth imagined richness, full of emotional, subjective resonance, and wandering focus is here woven together with the more mundane everyday surface of the street corner. [“Color Jam”] celebrates and demands that the evocative surface of this Chicago street corner be expanded. The corner is canvas, stage, pedestal, and frame against which the public can view a parade of shifting color relationships.”

“Color Jam” is part of Art Loop, an award-winning series that activates the Loop with contemporary art. Previous Art Loop installations include Tony Tasset’s EYE and CARDINAL (2010) and Kay Rosen’s GO DO GOOD (2011).

On display through September, “Color Jam” invites the public to participate in a series of programs—or “JAMS”—taking the form of concerts, talks, and happenings throughout the Loop. In addition, several Loop businesses are offering Color Jam-themed specials, ranging from color-tinis to jammin’ hotel discounts.