As the fine arts museum of the University of Chicago, the Smart Museum of Art is a site for rigorous inquiry and exchange that encourages the examination of complex issues through the lens of art objects and artistic practice.
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Image: Theaster Gates: Unto Thee, opening reception. Photo by Jason Smith.
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The Smart Museum of Art presents Theaster Gates's first solo museum exhibition in his hometown of Chicago.
A self-designated “keeper of objects,” the artist Theaster Gates investigates the value of things and their potential to hold layered meanings. He has been dedicated to investing in the care of these objects as a way to nurture stories and voices – often Black stories and voices – largely overlooked by history or institutional structures.
The exhibition Theaster Gates: Unto Thee is rooted in several core collections of objects that have been part of Gates’s artistic practice which he acquired through the University of Chicago, where he is Professor of Visual Arts. Ranging from the Department of Art History’s glass lantern slides and display vitrines from the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute), to paint-stained concrete from the floors of Midway Studios and wooden pews made for Bond Chapel, all objects have been discarded and identified as no longer needed. In creating new works with them over the years – and, as will be done again, in new installations at the Smart – Gates challenges that notion of stasis by instead excavating more histories, more stories. These installations will be accompanied by Gates’s more recent work including paintings, ceramics, film, and pieces incorporating the archive of the Johnson Publishing Company.
Rooted in materials and Gates’s interest in the process of making, Unto Thee embodies the relationships Gates has fostered within the University of Chicago, local communities, the South Side and broader Chicago. It underscores the artist’s unassailable belief in the potential of art to connect with and transform communities.
The exhibition is accompanied by a site-specific installation as part of the Museum’s Threshold Lobby Series, which will be on view through July 2026.