Alberto Aguilar: I just really want to tell you this one thing

Chicago Cultural Center, March 28 - Aug 23, 2026

Curator, Elise Butterfield

New City #1 Art pick for April 2026

I just really want to tell you this one thing explores themes of communication, response, transmission, and translation across two distinct periods of artist Alberto Aguilar’s career, 1997 – 2002 and 2020 – 2026.

Though Aguilar’s artwork today is just as likely to be a sculpture made with everyday items, or a performance with a soccer ball, he began as a painter. The decision to find a new media was clear to him: one night he was cleaning his brushes at 2 am after hours of work and realized that he did not want to spend so much of his life alone in the studio. In the center of the gallery, you will find some of Aguilar’s early paintings, alongside recent response work. Aguilar invited eleven artists to select one of his paintings and remake it, keeping the parameters open for creative interpretation. The result shows a variety of approaches to the assignment, each a re-interpretation of a young Aguilar’s expression, shaped by the translator’s sensibility.

The remainder of the exhibition reflects Aguilar’s multidisciplinary artistic practice in the last six years. A far cry from the solitary painter’s studio, Aguilar now creates signs and gestures wherever he finds himself, with whatever means he has at his disposal. His work has become inseparable from the meaningful relationships he develops with other artists, students, and family members.

I just really want to tell you this one thing is an offering by Aguilar and collaborators for viewers who want to be in creative conversation. Like Aguilar’s practice, this exhibition prioritizes the meaning that can be made only through exchange with others. This exhibition isn’t the culmination of Aguilar’s ideas; it is the means to develop new ones together.

Featuring new work by additional participating artists:

• Alex Bradley Cohen

• Cecilia Beaven

• Jess Bass

• Jonas Mikosch Müller-Anheim

• Jooeun Kim

• Joshua Mitchell

• Julieta Beltrán Lazo

• Maria Burundarena

• Ricardo Vilas Freire

• Saoirse Ahumada Furin

• Zespo