RUN — DON'T WALK TO SEE NATHANIEL MARY QUINN'S A LOVE LETTER TO MY MOTHER

Nathaniel Mary Quinn's A Love Letter to My Mother at the National Public Housing Museum

RUN — don't walk — to experience Chicago native Nathaniel Mary Quinn's first solo museum exhibition at the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM). A Love Letter to My Mother is precisely what its title promises: a deeply personal elegy to the woman whose faith made an artist.

Quinn grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes, once the largest public housing complex in the country. What opened as an optimistic promise of affordable living slowly devolved into an urban malaise where survival eclipsed aspiration. Quinn has said that Robert Taylor Homes were "incredibly efficient at killing dreams" — yet his mother Mary refused to let that be his story. She championed his talent, and he has since adopted her name as his own.

The exhibition anchors itself around a living room reconstructed from memory, conjuring the family's apartment circa 1984 — the place where, with his mother's encouragement, Quinn covered the walls with childhood sketches. At first glance, his collage-like, composite portraits carry an almost Frankenstein-like quality — assembled from many parts, some grotesque, others luminous — yet every assembled face pulses with unmistakable soul. The good, the bad, and the beautiful, stitched together into a singular human truth. Comparisons to Francis Bacon are apt, but Quinn's vision is warmer, more redemptive.



Now represented by Gagosian and with work held by the Whitney, SFMOMA, and the Art Institute of Chicago, Quinn recently created the cover art for the Rolling Stones' new album. The exhibition runs through August 23rd. And while you're there, take time to explore the one year old NPHM — named by USA Today as one of the country's top new museums.