Exhibitions
JOIN US
Please join us at The Smart Museum of Art this winter for our current exhibitions Theaster Gates: Unto Thee and Smart to the Core: Wise to Power, on view through February 22, 2026. The Thresholds lobby installation is on view through July 26, 2026.
Composing Color:
Paintings by Alma Thomas from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
March 24 – July 5, 2026
Inspired by the cosmos, nature, and music, Alma Thomas (1891–1978) developed a form of abstraction that transcended established genres. Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas draws on the extensive holdings of the artist’s paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and offers an intimate view of Thomas’s evolving practice during her most prolific period, from 1959 to 1978.
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Beyond Boundaries:
Three Decades of Contemporary Chinese Art at the Smart
March 29 – July 5, 2026
Beyond Boundaries foregrounds the University of Chicago’s pivotal role in studying and exhibiting contemporary Chinese art. Bringing together artworks acquired by the Museum over the last three decades, archival materials, as well as new work, the exhibition explores how artists navigate and challenge physical limitations across cultural, environmental, and political terrains.
Smart to the Core: Wise to Power
September 23, 2025 - July 5, 2026
Part I, September 23, 2025 - February 22, 2026
Part II, March 24, 2026 - July 5, 2026
Why and how do people form political communities? How does political society organize our economic lives - and vice versa? And how as individuals do we navigate society? Smart to the Core: Wise to Power examines these questions by integrating visual art with foundational texts of modern social and political thought spanning over three centuries.
Theaster Gates -
African Still Life #3: A Tribute to Patric McCoy and Marva Jolly
September 23, 2025 - July 5, 2026
Presented as an open-storage museum cabinet, African Still Life #3: A Tribute to Patric McCoy and Marva Jolly is a site-specific installation offered as part of the Museum's Threshold Lobby Series. Introduced in conjunction with the exhibition Theaster Gates: Unto Thee, this installation deepens Gates's ongoing investigation of rituals of accumulation, redemption, and relational aesthetics.
Sculpture Garden
Vera and A. D. Elden Sculpture Garden
The outdoor sculpture garden features work by Scott Burton, Jene Highstein, Richard Hunt, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and Richard Serra.