Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera
Aug 02, 2025 - Jul 05, 2026
About the Exhibition
Can you think of a moment in your life when turmoil and darkness brought meaningful insight?
That was one of several questions that artist and educator Pablo Helguera posed to a group of 20 Chicago artists, writers, activists, and educators in the fall of 2024. The group had converged at the MCA as part of Helguera’s work on a new exhibition of the museum’s permanent collection. Their conversations, which ranged from the role of art in moments of uncertainty to the ways that confusion or misalignment can lead to creative possibilities, form the basis of Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera.
Curated by Helguera and representatives from the MCA’s curatorial and learning teams in response to the group’s discussions, the exhibition spans all three floors of the museum’s iconic stairwell galleries and explores themes that emerged during conversations with participants. Accompanied by the voices of the individuals whose unique perspectives on the present informed the selection of works, Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera presents well-known works from the collection in an entirely new context—a conversation between Chicagoans reckoning with the present.
Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera was made possible by the artists, writers, activists, and educators who shared their perspectives on the issues of our time. Dialogue partners include Olivia Gude, Tempestt Hazel, Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Ankit Khadgi, Maira Khwaja, S. Y. Lim, Stephanie Manriquez, Magdalena Moskalewicz, Nissa Rhee, Monica Rickert-Bolter, Mérida M. Rúa, Pia Singh, Carlos Salazar-Lermont, Sufyan Sohel, and several others who wish to remain anonymous.
The exhibition is organized by Pablo Helguera, Guest Curator, with Miguel Aguilar, Manager of Learning, School Partnerships and Curriculum, and Iris Colburn, Curatorial Associate.
About the Artist
Pablo Helguera (b. 1971, Mexico City, Mexico; lives in New York, NY) is an artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art, and performance. Helguera’s work focuses on a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory, and the absurd, in formats that are widely varied including the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances, and written fiction. His project, The School of Panamerican Unrest is one of the most extensive socially engaged public art initiatives on record. Helguera has exhibited at major institutions worldwide and received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has held key roles in museum education, including at MoMA and the Guggenheim. Currently, he teaches at The New School and writes the weekly column Beautiful Eccentrics. He is the author of Education for Socially Engaged Art (2011) and Parable Conference (2014).
Funding
Lead support is provided by the Pritzker Traubert Collection Exhibition Fund, Cari and Michael Sacks, and the Zell Family Foundation.