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Nick Cave: Forothermore

May 14, 2022 - Oct 02, 2022

About the Exhibition

The MCA presents the first career-spanning retrospective of the internationally renowned Chicagoan Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives in Chicago, IL), 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 hanging in the museum’s two-story atrium and fourth-floor lobby.

Cave came to prominence as a visual artist almost 20 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, with Jack Schneider, Curatorial Assistant. It is presented in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art on the museum’s fourth floor.

Installation Views

Related Content

Learn more about Nick Cave and his artistic process in this video created for the exhibition Nick Cave: Forothermore.

In an interview given in his studio, Cave discusses his upbringing, artistic practice, and how he manages to balance joy and despair not only in his artwork, but in his outlook on the world.

Produced by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 2022. Post-production by Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli / Solid Pink Productions.

Funding

Lead individual sponsorship is generously contributed by Kenneth C. Griffin. 

Lead support is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, Zell Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, Nancy and Steven Crown, Joyce Yaung and Matt Bayer, Julie and Larry Bernstein, Marilyn and Larry Fields, Agnes Gund, Jack Shainman Gallery, and Karyn and Bill Silverstein. 

Major support is provided by Murat Ahmed and Katherine Mackenzie; the Bluhm Family; Robert J. Buford; Conagra Brands Foundation; Ellen-Blair Chube; Lois and Steve Eisen and the Eisen Family Foundation; Denise and Gary Gardner; Jack and Sandra Guthman; The Joyce Foundation; Anne L. Kaplan; Susie L. Karkomi and Marvin Leavitt; Kovler Family Foundation; Liz and Eric Lefkofsky; Jennifer and Alec Litowitz; Gael Neeson, Edlis Neeson Foundation; Conor O’Neil/McCormick Family Foundation; Ashley Hemphill Netzky and Pamela Netzky; Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund; and Rebekah and Ilan Shalit. 

Generous support is contributed by Heiji and Brian Black, Dr. Anita Blanchard and Martin H. Nesbitt, Conduit Studio, Tonya and Matt Geesman, Helyn Goldenberg and Michael Alper, Nickol and Darrel Hackett, Jana and Bernardo Hees, Katie and Billy Hutchens, Brenda and Steffan Jacobsen, Linda Johnson Rice, Diane Kahan, Laura and Craig Martin, Cheryl and Eric McKissack, Marisa Murillo, D. Elizabeth Price, Nathaniel Robinson, Catherine Ross and Chris Liguori, Douglas and Yumi Ross, and Terra Foundation for American Art.

This project was partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Office of Tourism. 

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

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