Nate Young: Two Artists Transform the Gilded Age Driehaus Museum in Chicago

A grandfather clock-like piece stands in a bay window niche at the 1883 Nickerson Mansion in Chicago. Meticulously constructed, it seems a relic of the home itself, but is it? Looking more closely and one sees that the work contains a hologram. Step away and you might never have noticed it at all. At the Driehaus Museum in Chicago, local artists Nate Young and Mika Horibuchi have created contemporary site-specific installations just barely visible in their historic host. Curated by the museum’s 2020 fellow Kekeli Sumah, “A Tale of Today,” on now through January 17, explores the concept of time through the seamless relationship between the home’s Gilded Age architecture, Young’s skillful woodworking and Horibuchi’s trompe-l’oeil artworks. In this opulent domestic setting, the artists explore familial relationships and authorship, blurring the lines between past and present and questioning narratives long undisputed.