DePaul Art Museum will open two new exhibitions this fall on the university’s Lincoln Park Campus, focusing on Chicago-based artists and local community history. The exhibitions, “Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: A Want for Nothing” and “Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago,” are scheduled to run from September 11, 2025, through February 8, 2026.

The first exhibition features work by conceptual artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. Curated by Ionit Behar, it marks Manglano-Ovalle’s first major solo show in more than twenty years. The exhibition includes site-specific works that blend familiar objects with ambiguity and encourage visitors to engage deeply with questions about space and power.

“Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle is a visionary conceptual artist of international acclaim who has called Chicago home since the 1990s,” said Behar. She explained that his recent practice blurs the line between art and utility, using objects that sometimes appear functional but often challenge traditional purposes or highlight sociopolitical issues.

“His practice, always attuned to the urgencies of the moment, has evolved in profound dialogue with shifting cultural, political and ecological realities,” Behar said. “Rather than offering fixed answers, his work asks critical, often unsettling questions that challenge how we understand power, technology and the built environment.”

Behar added that visitors will be invited to explore themes of public versus private space: “Manglano-Ovalle’s work calls us to inhabit the present moment fully, urging us to consider: How does the work draw us in, and how do we, in turn, respond to it — right here, right now?”

The second exhibition examines the history of the Young Lords Organization in Lincoln Park. Originally a street gang in Chicago’s Puerto Rican community during the 1950s and 1960s, the group became a significant civil rights organization as gentrification changed their neighborhood. Guest curator Jacqueline Lazú is recognized for her scholarship on the Young Lords and contributed to establishing DePaul's special collections archive on social movements.

“Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago” highlights counter-mapping as an activist tool—an approach that reclaims overlooked or erased elements from traditional maps. The exhibit brings together archival materials such as historical artifacts and photographs alongside murals and prints by artists including Carlos Flores, Ricardo Levins Morales and John Pitman Weber. New commissions include work by Sam Kirk as well as a multimedia installation by Arif Smith with Rebel Betty.

"Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón confronts the erasure of the spaces that gave rise to the Young Lords’ fight for justice,” said Lazú. “These works reclaim that ground, making visible the neighborhood that shaped the movement and insisting that its memory of struggle and community endures."

Public programming at DePaul Art Museum this fall will include artist walkthroughs of both exhibitions along with discussions involving curators and participating artists. Events are planned in partnership with citywide initiatives like Chicago Exhibition Weekend and Chicago Architectural Biennial; details can be found on DePaul Art Museum’s events page.

Both exhibitions have received support from organizations such as The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts; additional funding comes from Abby Pucker; Jack & Sandra Guthman; as well as The Vincentian Endowment Fund specifically supporting "Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón."

“It is an honor for DPAM to be trusted with presenting the stories and concepts explored in each of these exhibitions. We know the social, political and geographic timeliness of both shows will resonate with visitors as they consider their own relationships to the works,” said DePaul Art Museum Director Laura-Caroline de Lara.