I build things that break other things. My work begins with a refusal — of objects that perform control, of systems that organize behavior, of things that pretend to be neutral. The work operates through contradiction—things don't behave, they betray. I stay with this trouble—where failure turns to farce, where control stumbles over itself, and the tragic tilts toward a feral, absurd comedy. There will be dancing in the dark times.

Ricardo De Lima is a Colombo-Venezuelan artist working across sculpture, sound, video, and experimental software. Based in Chicago, his practice exposes how power operates through everyday objects and systems. He has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, National Museum of Mexican Art, Comfort Station Chicago, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, and the Havana Biennial. For over a decade, he organized platforms for experimental sound and diasporic nightlife in Boston and New York. De Lima received the 2015 James and Audrey Foster Prize from the ICA Boston and the 2025 Municipal Art League Fellowship from SAIC. He has held residencies at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, MASS MoCA, and Vermont Studio Center. He holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2025).