Nick Cave: Forothermore
About the Exhibition
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents the first career-spanning retrospective of the internationally renowned Chicagoan Nick Cave (American, b. 1959), an artist celebrated for projects that blend community building with vibrant works of art across disciplines, including immersive installations, textural sculptures, impeccably crafted fashion, and dynamic videos and performances. Highlights of the exhibition include never-before-seen works, including a continuation of the artist's popular Soundsuits series with the premiere of Soundsuits 9:29 and a mesmerizing, site-specific installation, Spinner Forest, comprised of thousands of kinetic spinners that will hang in the museum's two-story atrium and fourth-floor lobby.
Cave came to prominence as a visual artist almost twenty years ago with his dazzling, sculptural Soundsuits, and works in Chicago as an activist, educator, designer, and performer. Nick Cave: Forothermore gathers all of these aspects of Cave's work into the artist's largest museum survey to date. This immersive journey through Cave's distinct bodies of work is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue designed with Cave's partner, Bob Faust.
Nick Cave: Forothermore is an ode to those who, whether due to racism, homophobia, or other forms of bigotry, live their lives as the “other”—and a celebration of the way art, music, fashion, and performance can help us envision a more just future.
The exhibition is curated by Naomi Beckwith, former Manilow Senior Curator. It is presented in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art on the museum's fourth floor.
Featured Images

Nick Cave, Arm Peace, 2018. Cast bronze and vintage tole flowers. 57 1/2 x 19 3/8 x 13 1/2 in.
© Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkPhoto: James Prinz Photography

Nick Cave, Bunny Boy, 2012. Digital transfer file. 14:05 min.
© Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Nick Cave
Photo: James Prinz Photography
Nick Cave, Sea Sick, 2014. Mixed media including oil paintings, ceramic container, cast hands, and plastic ship. 96 x 72 x 10 1/2 in.
© Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkPhoto: James Prinz Photography

Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2011. Mixed media including vintage bunny, safety pin craft baskets, hot pads, fabric, metal, and mannequin. 111 x 36 x 36 in.
© Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkPhoto: James Prinz Photography

Nick Cave,
Speak Louder, 2011.
Mixed media including black mother-of-pearl buttons, embroidery floss, upholstery, metal armature, and mannequins.
Installed: 93 ½ × 199 × 123 in. (237.5 × 505.5 × 312.4 cm)
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, purchased jointly by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago with funds provided by the Zell Family Foundation and by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 2018.1

Nick Cave, Untitled, 2018. Mixed media including a table, a carved eagle and 119 various carved heads. 48 1/4 x 120 x 45 1/4 in.
© Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkPhoto: James Prinz Photography

Nick Cave, Wall Relief, 2013. Mixed media including ceramic birds, metal flowers, afghans, strung beads, crystals and antique gramophone. 4 panels, each: 97 x 74 x 21 in.
© Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New YorkPhoto: James Prinz Photography
Video Gallery
Video Gallery