Over the last few years, the artist Theaster Gates has traveled the world to produce his distinctive installations. He took over the Prada Mansion in Shanghai, built a library at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and envisioned a Black Chapel at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. By combining salvaged materials and archives, Gates creates compelling interdisciplinary histories. In the first museum survey exhibition devoted to Gates, he considers how radical thinkers have shaped both his native city, Chicago, and the country as a whole. Over the last few years, he has collected treasure troves of objects and images from around the city and greater Illinois. Paintings, sculptures, videos, and performance are on view here, arranged with Gates’s signature eloquence. —Elena Clavarino