teamLab has installed permanent and touring venues from Tokyo to Abu Dhabi, but the Japanese collective has never had a dedicated Midwest US show — until now. “teamLab: Everything Exists in Infinite Continuity” opens September 22 at the Smart Museum of Art on the University of Chicago campus, running through February 21, 2027.
What’s in the show
The exhibition spans roughly 25 years of teamLab’s practice, mixing recurring pieces from the collective’s touring repertoire with new work made specifically for the Smart Museum’s galleries. Confirmed pieces include:
- Massless Suns and Dark Suns — glowing spheres that brighten and react as visitors approach, alongside invisible “dark suns” that only become perceptible through their effect on the space around them.
- Dissipative Figures – Human and Dissipative Figures – Murmuration — human forms and bird flocks rendered not as outlines but as the disturbance they leave in the surrounding air currents.
- Order in Chaos — a piece that turns small, individual visitor interactions into evolving patterns with no centralized control point.
- The World of Irreversible Change — synced to Chicago’s actual weather and seasons, so the work is continuously reshaped by real rain, sunlight, and time rather than looping on a fixed cycle.
The through-line
teamLab’s stated interest across two and a half decades has been the relationship between an individual’s perception and a collective, shared environment — treating visitors as active participants shaping the work rather than an audience watching it from outside. That framing is fairly literal here: several of the confirmed pieces only complete themselves once someone walks into the room.
A companion exhibition catalogue, distributed by University of Chicago Press and edited by Allison J. Martino and Vanja V. Malloy, is planned alongside the show, with contributed essays and a piece from teamLab founder Toshiyuki Inoko.