The opening of “Kemang Wa Lehulere: In All My Wildest Dreams” at the Art Institute of Chicago marks the first solo exhibition in the United States for South African artist Kemang Wa Lehulere (b. 1984, Cape Town). The show, curated by Kate Nesin, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, emblematizes Wa Lehulere's multidisciplinary approach through its display of objects created in several media, including Polaroid photographs, handwritten letters, annotated sketches, digital video, and sculptures made from salvaged school desks.
Upon entering the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, viewers immediately witness “In All My Wildest Dreams,” visible through the glass walls that enclose the front of the exhibition (Fig. 1). In the first gallery space, visitors may ponder the seemingly disparate collection of objects that include several ceramic dog sculptures scattered on the floor, with some shattered and others still intact; these sculptures rest amid...