Nick Tobier: The Retail Wall at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Nick Tobier’s project The Retail Wall, a semi-fictional broadside chronicling the not so ordinary life of a Detroit gas station mini-mart, is on view as part of Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago through July 5, 2025. 

Can you think of a moment in your life when turmoil and darkness brought meaningful insight?
That was one of several questions that artist and educator Pablo Helguera posed to a group of artists, writers, activists, and educators in the fall of 2024. The group had converged at the MCA as part of Helguera’s work on a new exhibition of the museum’s permanent collection. Their conversations, which ranged from the role of art in moments of uncertainty to the ways that confusion or misalignment can lead to creative possibilities, form the basis of Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera.

Collection in Conversation
Exhibition Dates: August 2, 2025 — July 5, 2026
Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago
220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago IL 60611