Encounter: Bruce Nauman and Kcho

About the Exhibition

This exhibition, the first in a series that pairs works from the MCA Collection with pieces by contemporary artists who may be unfamiliar to Chicago audiences, brings together works by Bruce Nauman (American, b. 1941) and Kcho (Cuban, b. 1970). Since the mid-1960s, Nauman has pursued ideas of self-definition through a witty assault on traditional notions of artmaking. His claustrophobic sculptures Three Dead-End Adjacent Tunnels, Not Connected and Rats and Bats (Learned Helplessness in Rats) II create a sense of psychological isolation as they explore the meaning of personal identity. Like Nauman’s works in this exhibition, Kcho’s Lo Mejor del Verano and Archipiélago en Mi Pensamiento attest to the artist’s consuming interest in the idea of isolation. Having grown up on an island off the coast of Cuba, Kcho uses his sculptures to grapple with his country’s status as a land in isolation and constant flux. While Kcho takes a melancholy, poetic approach in his work, Nauman chooses a conceptual, or idea-based, route as he addresses similarly universal themes.

This project is organized by MCA Manilow Senior Curator Francesco Bonami.