Members’ Preview | Gary Simmons: Public Enemy

About the Event

MCA Members enjoy first-look access of the MCA’s newest exhibitions alongside curators, artists, and fellow art enthusiasts. Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn and the MCA invite you and a guest to attend the Members’ Preview for Gary Simmons: Public Enemy. Join us for complimentary light fare and refreshments while being among the first to view this timely exhibition, the first comprehensive career survey of the work of multidisciplinary artist Gary Simmons.

Since the late 1980s, Simmons has played a key role in situating questions of race, class, and gender identity at the center of contemporary art discourse. Guided by an internal logic, his approach is cool, analytical, and unflinching in its interrogation of intense historical narratives, yet the results consistently deliver a strong emotional charge.

Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark | Bonita Appleblunt

noon–2 pm

Chicago DJ Bonita Appleblunt ushers in the Members’ Preview of Gary Simmons: Public Enemy. Named one of the Chicago Reader’s Best Hip-Hop DJs, Appleblunt works to evoke the ephemeral, magnetic ambiance of a house party, weaving a sense of closeness, connection, and celebration among their audience. Guests are invited to commemorate the opening of Public Enemy with a moment that will remain part of the history of Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark, an artwork by Simmons inspired by Lee “Scratch” Perry’s famed Jamaican studio and the site of the birth of dub.