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Many of Chicago-based artist Michael Rakowitz s (born 1973) works take an interventionist approach to public space in order to address deep-rooted social issues. Rakowitz first gained attention for his project paraSITE, an ongoing series in which he builds inflatable shelters for the homeless. His most large-scale projects are The invisible enemy should not exist, an attempt to reconstruct the archeological artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq in the aftermath of the American invasion, and Return, in which Rakowitz re-opened Davidsons & Co. in Brooklyn, based on the import/export business his family operated in Baghdad until 1946.

Rakowitz’s solo exhibitions include a Percent for Art Program Commission through the Department of Cultural Affairs in New York and at Lombard-Freid Projects in New York. He is an Associate Professor in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Rakowitz received a BFA from State University of New York, Purchase College, Purchase, NY, and an MFA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.