George Clinton expands his Afrofuturist universe through paintings, now on display in Chicago

As a boundary-pushing pioneer of funk music, George Clinton imagined entire mythologies of beings from outer space. He encountered them, too. The pivotal moment occurred one morning in 1976, as he and bassist Bootsy Collins drove from Detroit to Clinton’s home in Canada. “We saw a laser light, right out of the clouds, hit the ground,” said Clinton, now 85 and living in Florida. A few miles away, that same piercing light struck their car, and dripped a mercury-like substance on the hood.…