Theaster Gates: Unto Thee
September 23, 2025 - February 22, 2026
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.
SUPPORT
Major support has been provided by Amy and Paul Carbone, Bob and Jane Clark, Elissa Efroymson and Adnaan Hamid, Ray Iwanowski and Erica Noble, and the Donald R. Wilson, Jr. Family Foundation.
Principal support has been provided by the University of Chicago Women’s Board, and Paul and De Gray.
Presented in the Elisabeth and William M. Landes Gallery, the Richard and Mary L. Gray Gallery, the Robert and Joan Feitler Gallery, the Joel and Carole Bernstein Gallery, and the Eunice Ratner Reception Gallery.
Image: Theaster Gates: Assembly Hall, September 5, 2019 through January 12, 2020, Target Gallery. Photo by Bobby Rogers for Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.