REVIEW: Faith Ringgold, “American People” at the MCA Chicago
Installation view, Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Chicago. November 18, 2023 – February 25, 2024. Photo: Shelby Ragsdale, © MCA Chicago.
REVIEW
Faith Ringgold: American People
MCA Chicago
220 E. Chicago Ave.
Chicago IL 60611
November 18, 2023—February 25, 2024
By Alexandria Knapik
The Museum of Contemporary Art is host to not just another activist artist capstone 4th floor exhibition and retrospective but to Faith Ringgold! This themed pattern of exhibitions is what I imagine visitors truly love about the MCA. Faith Ringgold: American People nestled into the 4th floor loop like a glove, and was bustling with viewers and tours alike following the familiar flow repeat visitors know by heart: enter on the left.
The rooms are generally in chronological and thematic order with the very back/middle of the exhibition having a quiet viewing room to read further literature, watch relevant films, and listen to sound bites of Ringgold’s activism and life work. This is something I admire about the newer exhibitions in the MCA that these alternate spaces for continued learning through different methods are supported and shared with attendees. Ringgold’s work follows issues from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, feminism, identity, grief, and other activism. She also had a breadth of mediums at play throughout her artistic career, from figure paintings early on, to textile work, to sculpture, abstract paintings, community organizing, quilts, illustration and more.
Installation view, Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Chicago. November 18, 2023 – February 25, 2024. Photo: Shelby Ragsdale, © MCA Chicago.
Some of the most moving pieces in the exhibition are Faith Ringgold’s work on the Attica Correctional Facility, particularly “The United States of Attica.” Near this work in the exhibition while looking at the yellow flyer calling for a protest at the Museum of Modern Art’s Garden, I realized that I had seen the original Faith Ringgold: American People, at New York’s New Museum on May 24, 2022. And wow, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Jamillah James did a phenomenally better job with it. The MCA just had so much more to offer, considering it was able to exhibit more pieces from its own collection than the New Museum. This was a true retrospective and it was colorful, shown thoughtfully, and had options for people to listen and read more details about the work on their own and in their own way.
Leaving the exhibition, I felt a dual and conflicting sense about radicalism, that much of what Ringgold’s expressing in her work mirrors what activists still share today. I left wondering for hours about how normal those statements felt in that gallery with that crowd of diverse MCA guests on “free admission for Illinois residents” Tuesdays. But outside of that gallery it seemed that maybe a majority wouldn’t agree that feeding every U.S citizen is more important than putting our flag on the moon. Not to mention how valuable it is to see that a free admission day does in fact gather people from all walks of life, I saw old white couples, people with differing abilities, and many young Black and people of color up close with Ringgold’s work. I’m actually reminded of a friend who I know saw the work on opening day, and when asked how she liked it, she shared that she was inspired and will take that inspiration to future works. In all, exhibitions that jostle people and provoke inspiration are huge wins and are worth soaking in for any prospective viewer.
Alexandria Knapik is curator, organizer, artist and writer living in Chicago.
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