Interlocking: Models and Proposals by Virginio Ferrari considers the artistic processes behind creating large scale works of public art and serves as a case study for the stages of planning required of an artist to produce work for the public sphere. The title of the exhibition, Interlocking, refers to Italian sculptor Virginio Ferrari's beloved sculpture by the same name, sited at the University of Chicago Laboratory School. The term “interlocking” evokes the interplay between media that forms the basis for realizing public sculpture as a whole. A survey of Ferrari's models, proposals, and drawings, this exhibition provides a focused narrative of the translation from two-dimensional plans to small-scale physical models, and more broadly illustrates the relationship between the initial proposal and the final public artwork.

Ferrari’s sculptures often arise out of simple geometric forms; his nuanced consideration of the antagonism between three-dimensional shapes produce both provocative and precarious situations in which forms fit together through contrasts and oppositions. The juxtaposition of models and drawings serve to elucidate the early stages of Ferrari’s artistic process.

Virginio Ferrari is an internationally acclaimed contemporary sculptor, who has exhibited his work in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and throughout the United States. Ferrari's monumental sculptures can be found on street corners and public parks, at universities and libraries, corporations and in private collections in Chicago, and all over the world.