The MCA presents a career-spanning retrospective of the internationally renowned Chicagoan Nick Cave, an artist celebrated for his projects that eloquently blend community building with vibrant works of art across disciplines, including immersive installations, textural sculptures, impeccably crafted fashions, 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. 

Reflecting the artist’s three-dimensional approach, the exhibition is designed as an immersive journey that begins with Spinner Forest and continues in the galleries with the artist’s cast bronze sculptures, tapestries made of sequined garments, color-saturated videos, and breath-taking installations such as the larger-than-life Beaded Cliff Wall that is comprised of millions of colorful pony beads threaded into shoelaces by hand. Displayed against a backdrop of floor-to-ceiling geometric vinyl wallpaper collaboratively designed with the artist’s partner Bob Faust, Forothermore traces artistic themes and Cave’s evolving interests over three decades, with works from as early as 1989. 

Leading up to the exhibition, the MCA will be releasing short videos produced by the artist featuring sneak peeks of new works in the exhibition and behind-the-scenes glimpses into Cave’s collaborative creative process. The most comprehensive survey of Cave’s work to date, the exhibition will kick off with the ArtEdge: Forothermore gala on May 21, 2022. 

Nick Cave: Forothermore is organized by former MCA Senior Curator Naomi Beckwith.