Murat Ahmed

Poker Night is back! Latitude x LMRM Join us on MAY 22 for an evening of community, poker, and friendly competition. ➡️ support our two community arts organizations and play to win an artwork by Lisa Alvarado or B. Ingrid Olson! ✺ 5:30 PM – Doors open w/ studio tours of both Latitude and LMRM ✺ 6:30 PM – Poker play begins (up to 8 players per table) ✺ 9:00 PM – Play ends, prizes awarded! No need to worry if you're not a seasoned card player (or haven't played before at all!)—rules will be explained, patience will be abundant, and we'll progress at a comfortable pace for everyone. Link in bio 🐎♠️♥️♣️♦️🐎

Last year I wanted to shoot a glam team portrait session at LMRM to celebrate all the mountains everyone moved to make this space happen. From the studio relocation to expanding our loom access, this was dream work. We have worked really hard on every little detail of LMRM and I am incredibly grateful to have a community so invested in what felt like a pipe dream 5 years ago. In our first team photoshoot, I didn't want to be humble about this work - it's often taken 200% of everyone's efforts to make this happen, and I never want to forget that. Chicago artists are familiar with these kinds of spaces being built as your second or third job, designing impactful programs with a much smaller budget than you could imagine. Everyone who has lent their encouragement, time, curiosity, advice, and labor has sharpened what LMRM can do and represent. Thus, "Glam & Unrelatable" was the assignment for the vibe and needless to say, @feltonkizer crushed it!

“windows dressed in cellophane” 2026. 33” x 25” x 2.5”. Plexiglass, beads, wool and cotton. Made in collaboration with Murat O. Ahmed @muratoa 🪟. photos by @mikeymosher_photo Forever grateful to Murat for being devoted to our freakishly ambitious project. As a nod to the warp and weft grid of weaving, Murat created a multicolor plaid inlay inside his plexiglass frame. This is the latest piece in my false mirror series. This work warns of the perils of looking outward to define ourselves. embroidery based on photos taken by @aliana______mt taken almost 4 years ago.

Thursday Nov 20, 6-8PM 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 , curated by @charlottegrussing opens at @theholenyc 312 Bowery! We're over the moon to be included in this amazing roster of artists working with fibers today, presented within the context of Anni Alber's and her influence on textile, weaving, and fiber arts. In an exhibition highlighting practices unbound by the traditional artistic heirarchies or conventions, we are deeply honored to have our collaboration with @abraham_cone , 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭, make its debut to the public here. Nov 20 - Jan 10, 2026 This collaboration took over 1 year to complete, and was an immense exercise in trust and collaboration. While weaving is one of the few mediums you can specify down to the thread, it remains incredibly unpredictable. Through meticulous dye-painting of unwoven silk warps, later installed onto a 60 inch wide TC2 loom, these two superimposed paintings were woven through each other, using Cone's visual language as the basis for a double-sided, double-weave silk screen. Working with an artist whose practice hadn't yet included loom weaving, LMRM co-directors @hopeless_hope and @muratoa sought to explore crossdisciplinary inquiries that deepen appreciation for handweaving as a vital contemporary art form. Artwork documentation by @eatpomegranate

LMRM x ABRAHAM CONE 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 H52 x W59 x D12 inches Dye-painted silk, maple wood frame 2025 Making its first debut in Norway, we were thrilled to share one of two finished pieces that resulted from our first artist collaboration in 2024. Partnering with artist Abraham Cone, LMRM co-directors Murat Ahmed and Hope Wang sought to explore new woven experimentations that would expand the possibilities of Cone’s current practice and LMRM’s textile-based medium.  LMRM facilitated the process for Cone to dye-paint two silk warps, later installed simultaneously on the TC2 digital loom, as two superimposed paintings to be woven through each other. As Cone’s first foray into warp painting and dressing a loom, LMRM’s mission was two-fold: to cultivate artist-driven inquiries that traverse disciplines and deepen appreciation for weaving as a vital contemporary art form. Using Cone’s visual language as a foundation, Wang and Ahmed developed woven compositions that culminated in works such as this double-sided, double-weave silk screen—at once image, object, and textural field. Taking inspiration from Chinese privacy screens, this freestanding frame creates much needed stability for the ethereal, unwoven aspects of the piece, performing both as a decorative partition and protection from wind or unwanted energy. Frame designed and produced by fine art woodworker @shawnmichaellucas . Loom dressing support from @meaganleggin Artwork documentation by @eatpomegranate 🙏🏻✨🙏🏻

We had such an inspiring time during our whirlwind trip to Toronto for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘷𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘎𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘱, a collaboration between LMRM, @makingspace.yeg , @noncompetitive.research , and The Institute of Institutional Critique @lan.florence.yee @mmmmmmattia . After meeting virtually on a monthly basis for 6 months to talk about our various experiences as arts workers, each participating collective gathered in person for a final panel discussion during the exhibition closing @whippersnappergallery @_collectivecollective . This exhibition concept arose organically through the 6 month process, culminating in this semi-fictional gift shop with “merchandise” we each produced as a response to unseen labour demanded by cultural work. We found that many of us arrived at our organizations (and our values) through the experience of “being difficult” to work with, when our critique of art spaces was often one rooted in the deep conviction that things can be better and more rooted in care than they are presently. Through quippy t-shirts, demotivational posters, mock AGMs, mugs memorializing rejection by institutions, or print screens memorializing our rejection of institutions, comedy shaped a large part of our conversation. Humour (and thus, spite) can create bridges more than it creates distance. The pettiness that seems to be the connective tissue between each of our collectives…has become a generative modality for the cultural work we all do. Photography by Darren Rigo

LMRM x ABRAHAM CONE 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 H82 x W60 x D12 inches Dye-painted silk, maple wood frame 2025 Frame designed by fine art woodworker Shawn Michael Lucas In 2024, LMRM piloted its first collaboration with an artist whose practice had not previously included loom weaving. In partnership with Abraham Cone, LMRM co-directors Murat Ahmed and Hope Wang sought to explore new woven experimentations that would expand the possibilities of Cone’s current practice and LMRM’s textile-based medium. Taking hundreds of hours across exactly one year to complete, this collaboration stretched us to our limits. We are deeply grateful for the generosity and humility this project required of everyone involved - in many ways, we found that collaboration of this scale becomes a modality of failure. No one collaborator ever gets exactly what they want at first, and no one collaborator gets to flex the most heroic muscles to dominate the final outcome. Thus, it requires us to examine the gaps between disappointment to find the next path forward. Weaving is one of the few mediums we can execute through an algorithm. Yet remarkably, it is also one of the most unpredictable. You put on a warp end by end, then weave it pick by pick, interlacing fiber based on a fully specified pattern. There are nearly 30 million intersections in this weaving. So while each one was planned, the collaborative constraints throughout this process produced something we could've never imagined. When individual authorship slips, something valuable develops. It is an opportunity to respond to an environment you may have never encountered otherwise. 🌟💠🌟 Artwork documentation by @eatpomegranate !

𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘦" 𝘉𝘰𝘹 features a single pre-exposed silk screen ready for print. Each unique screen features fragments of text from LMRM’s email response to being asked to “donate” the production and end result of 18 works of art to a permanent collection. LMRM laid out the math around the labor and material expenses involved in the proposition to confirm if they sincerely meant to ask two individuals to donate almost $20,000 USD to a major institution that did not have the budget to pay artists themselves. "Nice" Box pokes fun at the unoriginality of such delusional entitlement in these inquiries, which may be met with equally reproducible answers. This item was produced as part of The Institute of Making Space for Noncompetitve Looms Gift Shop, a collaboration between LMRM, @makingspace.yeg , @noncompetitive.research , and The Institute of Institutional Critique @lan.florence.yee @mmmmmmattia . Having bonded over their shared interests in collaboration, slowness, and the unseen labour demanded by cultural work, each collective has produced merchandise that speaks to the continuous bureaucratic and administrative work that has become an essential part of the creative process. The merchandise for sale at this quasi-fictitious gift shop draws attention to the fundraising, bookkeeping, planning, feeding, conflict management, and imaginative problem-solving that is asked of artists and arts workers in order to make and show their work. This semi-fictional gift shop is an exhibition at @whippersnappergallery (Toronto) as part of a programming series supported by @_collectivecollective .

"Nice" Box features a single pre-exposed silk screen ready for print. Each unique screen features fragments of text from LMRM’s email response to being asked to “donate” the production and end result of 18 works of art to a permanent collection. LMRM laid out the math around the labor and material expenses involved in the proposition to confirm if they sincerely meant to ask two artists to donate almost $20,000 USD to a major institution that did not have the budget to pay artists themselves. "Nice" Box pokes fun at the unoriginality of such delusional entitlement in these inquiries, which may be met with equally reproducible answers. This item is not for sale, but can be viewed at any time in our window exhibition at @whippersnappergallery until August 24, 2025. This item was produced as part of The Institute of Making Space for Noncompetitve Looms Gift Shop, a collaboration between LMRM, Making Space, The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research, and The Institute of Institutional Critique. This semi-fictional gift shop is an exhibition at Whippersnapper Gallery (Toronto) as part of a programming series supported by Collective Collective.

Was born on a Fibonacci (sub)sequence, today became a power of two ✨✨ 10.01.23 10.01.24

We’re so excited to introduce our next Chicago Community Fellows’ 2023 cohort member AND Chicago Exhibition Weekend partner, LMRM! @lmrm_chicago LMRM (“loom room”) is a project space, center for community resources, and gathering place serving Chicago’s fiber and textile communities. Located at @manacontemporary in Chicago, LMRM is one of the few places in the world offering public access to a TC2 digital jacquard loom and the only one in the U.S. with an open studio model: no residencies, no university enrollment. Through rental equipment, workshops, events, and collaborations, LMRM emphasizes weaving as a contemporary art practice. Catch LMRM in action during their Weaving Workshop Weekend (WWW) at this year’s Chicago Exhibition Weekend (CXW), presented by @gertie.chicago in partnership with @expochicago . WWW will showcase the experimental practices of 4 artists whose work explores diverse themes and weaving techniques. This weekend is also a celebration of LMRM’s textile community. Our studio doors will be open for tours, along with friends at sites across the city.” 🎥 @danielkwons #chicagomovies #chicagoweavers #chicagotextile #changemakers #breakoutfoundation #breakout

Happy four months, his hands period