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.

For Dyson’s first major installation with sound in New York City, the artist experiments with “breath as geography.” Inside a large sculptural pavilion, Dyson introduces a multichannel soundscape comprising the artist’s recordings of a range of spoken sounds.

This major solo exhibition highlights Johnson’s role as a scholar of art history, a mediator of Black popular culture, and as a creative force in contemporary art. Almost 90 works—from black-soap paintings and spray-painted text works to large-scale sculptures, film, and video—will fill the museum’s rotunda, including Sanguine, a monumental site-specific work on the building’s top ramp with an embedded piano for musical performances.