American People
November 18, 2023–February 25, 2024
220 E Chicago Ave
60611 Chicago IL
Hours: Tuesday 10am–9pm
Wednesday–Sunday 10am–5pm
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is pleased to announce Faith Ringgold: American People, a career-spanning survey of artist Faith Ringgold (b. 1930, Harlem, NY; lives and works in Englewood, New Jersey), opening in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art on November 18, 2023, and running through February 25, 2024. This exhibition will be Ringgold’s first solo presentation in Chicago.
With a career that spans six decades, artist, author, educator, and organizer Ringgold is one of the most influential cultural figures of her generation. This major retrospective presents a comprehensive assessment of the artist’s impactful vision, which bears witness to the complexity of the American experience.
Originally organized by the New Museum, New York, the MCA adaptation of Faith Ringgold: American People will showcase many of her best-known pieces, including paintings, quilts, and sculptures, as well as archival materials from her activist work in the late 1960s and 1970s. It will examine Ringgold’s art as it evolved in response to politics and society, including the artist’s indelible works of the civil rights era, her radical explorations of gender and racial identity, and her focus on collective struggles for social justice and equity. A part of the MCA’s Women Artists Initiative, this timely exhibition provides a new opportunity to experience the art of an American icon.
The exhibition will also further contextualize Ringgold’s continuing impact on art history through the inclusion of works from the MCA Collection by artists who were influenced by Ringgold or explore similar themes in their work.
The MCA Chicago presentation of Faith Ringgold: American People is curated by Jamillah James, Manilow Senior Curator, with Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator. The exhibition was originally organized by the New Museum, New York, and curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director, and Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Senior Curator, with Madeline Weisburg, Curatorial Assistant.
