Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Untitled, 2023. Pine and graphite. Courtesy of the artist.
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Well 34°01'03''N-118°29'12''W [detail], 2015. Stainless steel, aluminum and brass. Christopher Grimes Gallery. Courtesy of the artist and Christopher Grimes Gallery.
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Well 35°58’16”N - 106°5’21”W (Santa Clara Pueblo, NM), 2014. Pictured: Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. Courtesy of the artist.
Young Lords members protesting the Vietnam War in a march from Lincoln Park to Humboldt Park, 1969. (ST-70004742-0005, Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History Museum)
A Game of Chess, 1968 (Lincoln Park Press, Vol. 1 No. 2, DePaul University Special Collections)
A member of the Young Lords writes in chalk as a family looks on during a Puerto Rican heritage festival at the Armitage Methodist Church, 1969. (ST-40001976-0057, Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History Museum)
CHICAGO — DePaul Art Museum announces two fall exhibitions: “Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: A Want for Nothing,” curated by Ionit Behar, and “Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago,” guest curated by DePaul Professor Jacqueline Lazú.
These complementary exhibitions open Sept. 11, 2025, and run through Feb. 8, 2026, on DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus.
“Our fall exhibitions emerge from distinct curatorial frameworks — one through conceptual art, the other through community history and activism,” said Behar, curator at DePaul Art Museum. “Both raise urgent questions about spatial politics — how power is inscribed in space, who has access to it, and who is excluded. They ask us to reflect on the built environment not as neutral or passive, but as something shaped by histories of displacement, resistance and control.”
‘Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: A Want for Nothing’
Manglano-Ovalle’s solo exhibition at DePaul Art Museum presents two- and three-dimensional site-specific works that are familiar and opaque, encouraging viewers to confront ambiguity and engage in deeper contemplation. It is the Chicago-based artist’s first major exhibition in more than two decades.
"Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle is a visionary conceptual artist of international acclaim who has called Chicago home since the 1990s,” said Behar. She noted Manglano-Ovalle’s current practice creates objects that blur the line between art and utility. His works resemble utilitarian objects but often serve no conventional practical purpose, or, alternatively, reveal surprising functionality that critiques broader sociopolitical or environmental concerns.
“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 says visitors to the exhibit will be invited to explore the private and the public, the personal and the shared: “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?”
‘Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago’
“Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago” explores the Young Lords Organization's trajectory in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Gentrification and urban renewal displaced the vibrant Puerto Rican community of the 1950s and 1960s. Originally a street gang, the Young Lords transformed into a prominent civil rights organization.
Curator and faculty member Lazú is recognized as a leading scholar of the Young Lords Organization and helped establish DePaul's Young Lords special collections archive as a destination of study on social movements.
The exhibition explores the origins of the movement, emphasizing the concept of counter-mapping as a means of activism and community empowerment. Counter-mapping is a mapmaking approach that challenges narratives upheld by traditional maps, representing elements of a place that may have been overlooked or intentionally erased.
The exhibition features archival materials, historical artifacts, photography, murals and prints, with works by Carlos Flores, Ricardo Levins Morales and John Pitman Weber. It also includes newly commissioned work by Sam Kirk and a central multimedia installation by Arif Smith with Rebel Betty, inviting visitors to engage with one of the most influential movements in Latinx civil rights history, rooted in the everyday struggles of a Chicago neighborhood.
"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."
Save the date for public events at DPAM
Programs this fall will include an artist walkthrough of “A Want for Nothing” and a curator-artist talk in partnership with Chicago Exhibition Weekend and the Chicago Architectural Biennial, an interdisciplinary roundtable on Inigo Manglano-Ovalle’s practice and a panel discussion with Young Lord Members. All event information can be found on the DePaul Art Museum events page.
“Tengo Lincoln Park en Mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago” and “Iñigo Manglano Ovalle: A Want for Nothing” are both generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Abby Pucker, and Jack and Sandra Guthman. “Tengo Lincoln Park en mi corazón: Young Lords in Chicago” is also made possible thanks to the support of The Vincentian Endowment Fund.
“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.
DePaul Art Museum is located at 935 W. Fullerton Ave. on DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus. The museum is open 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free to everyone. Additional information is available online at https://artmuseum.depaul.edu/ or by calling 773-325-7506.
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Media Contact:
Julia Cremin