Nine Lives

Nine Lives, an ambitious group exhibition presented under the banner of the Feminist Art Coalition, a new initiative at museums nationwide. Nine Lives takes shape around a set of protagonists—real or imagined, past or present—as if the exhibition were a collection of short stories or personal essays. These figures come forward in the artworks, which offer intimate but imperfect access to these individual lives as they navigate everyday settings or more overt power structures and weigh the histories that inform them. Nine Lives includes new commissions from Kapwani Kiwanga, Hương Ngô, Raven Chacon, and Bethany Collins; and additional works by Marwa Arsanios, Tamar Guimarães, Aliza Nisenbaum, Charlotte Prodger, Alison O’Daniel, and Elle Pérez, many of whom are showing in Chicago for the first time.
 
Even in the face of wider uncertainty and rapid change, the Ren continues to aim high and our plans for our program this coming year are as far-reaching as ever. For a major group exhibition like Nine Lives, we face significant expenses for production, shipping and installation, while we also rise to new demands in order to welcome visitors safely and deliver initiatives for physically distant engagement. The support of our community combines with our streamlined staff, lean budget, and collaborative ethos to allow us to explore big ideas and present vital new artists' projects, such as the ones you will encounter in Nine Lives this fall.