Theaster Gates

Theaster Gates: OH, YOU'VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY is a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by David J. Levin, the Alice H. and Stanley G. Harris Distinguished Service Professor of Germanic Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, and Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, he has worked extensively as a dramaturg and conceptual collaborator for opera, theater, and dance productions in Germany and the United States.

In OH, YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK TO THE CITY, Gates brings together a new series of tar paintings, sculpture, and installation to tell an allegory of the city in decay and the potential contained within its ruins. The exhibition’s title comes from a song by Chicago musician and poet Marvin Tate, in which the City, personified as a character, has cleaned up its act and attempts to lure its residents back from the suburbs.