The idea of the monument as enduring evidence—an object or a structure created to commemorate an event, person, or era—is fundamental to both architecture and photography. Grace of Intention: Photography, Architecture, and the Monument is a group exhibition with work by eight international artists that explores the links between architecture and photography through the lens of the monument. The selected artists' works focus on a range of ideas, including actual monuments, permanence and impermanence, architecture and its relationship to memory, symbolism, and the idea of the future monument.

Geert Goiris lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. His work has been exhibited widely and is included within the collection of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques; the FRAC Reunion; the Fotomuseum, Antwerp; the Seattle Arts Museum; and the Williams College Museum of Art, among other public and private collections.

Iman Issa is an artist based in Cairo and New York. Recent group and solo exhibitions include the Eighth Berlin Biennial; MuHKA, Antwerp; Tensta Konsthall, Spånga; the New Museum and the SculptureCenter, New York; the KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin; and the Contemporary Image Collective in Cairo. Issa is the author of Thirty-Three Stories about Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places (SculptureCenter, 2011); has won several awards, including the HNF-MACBA Award (2012) and the Abraaj Group Art Prize (2013); and teaches at the Cooper Union’s School of Art.

Florian Joye studied art and design, visual communication, and photography at the University of Lausanne and the Ecole Cantonale d'art de Lausanne. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, and fairs such as IMAGE 08 and GD4art. He is the recipient of a National Design Award (2007) from the United Arab Emirates.

Jan Kampenears lives in Antwerp, Belgium, and works in Ghent, Belgium. He studied photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent and the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, Netherlands. His work has been widely included in international exhibitions and is the subject of several monographs.

Nadav Kander is a London-based photographer, artist, and director, known for his portraiture and landscapes. Kander has produced a number of books; has had his work exhibited widely; has been awarded the Terence Donovan Award from the Royal Photographic Society; has won the Prix Pictet and a World Press Photo Award; and his work is included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery; the Société Générale, Paris; and Pictet & Cie's Art Collection, among other museums and galleries.

Basim Magdy is a Cairo and Basel-based artist whose work has been shown internationally at La Biennale de Montréal, the Musée d'art contemporain (MAC), and the third New Museum Triennial. Magdy is the recipient of the 2014 New:Vision Award from the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, among other awards.

Nicolas Moulin studied at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts de Cergy Pontoise in the early 1990s. His work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions and is the subject of the monograph Viderparis.

Ana Vaz studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Le Fresnoy–Studio National. Her films have been shown at a number of international film festivals, including the New York Film Festival and the Biennial of the Moving Image in Buenos Aires, as well as in solo and group shows at FRAC/Le Plateau (Paris) and the Museum of the Republic (Brazil), among others.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) was founded by Columbia College Chicago in 1976 as the successor to the non-collecting Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the MoCP is a stimulating and innovative forum for the collection, creation, and examination of lens-based art and an expanded vocabulary of digital processes. The Museum's mission promotes a greater understanding and appreciation of the artistic, cultural, and political implications of the image in our world today. One of only three accredited photography museums in the country, the Museum serves the Chicago metropolitan region with 4-6 exhibitions each year; a rich array of accompanying educational programs, including lectures, artist talks, public tours, and print viewings; approximately two annual publications; sustained community engagement through three afterschool mentorships with the Chicago Public Schools; and a growing collection of more than 13,000 objects by over 1,700 artists with strength in American and emerging artists' works, as well as an increasing number of works by international photographers.