The tool most trusted for catching the correct exit off the Beltway will forever be a well-drawn map—whether rendered on folded paper or flashed across a screen. But the Argentine painter Guillermo Kuitca rarely finds clarity in precise cartography. Peering at demarcations of various unknown places only makes him feel more astray. Kuitca responds by creating maps that consider what we know about locales we’ve never visited. In conjunction with the opening of the retrospective “Guillermo Kuitca: Everything, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980–2008,” Kuitca will discuss how he reshapes this ubiquitous medium into the sort of thing you’d never encounter on Google Maps.

KUITCA SPEAKS AT 7 P.M. AT THE HIRSHHORN MUSEUM, INDEPENDENCE AVENUE AND 7TH STREET SW. FREE. (202) 633-2796.