Theaster Gates

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theaster Gates
Unleashing Entrepreneurial Innovation with Stanford University Theaster Gates.jpg
Gates at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2013
Born (1973-08-28) August 28, 1973 (age 48)
Chicago, Illinois, US
NationalityAmerican
Known forInstallation art, Urbanism
MovementSocial Practice
WebsiteTheasterGates.com

Theaster Gates (born August 28, 1973) is an American social practice installation artist and a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago.[1] He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he still lives and works.

Gates' work has been shown at major museums and galleries internationally and deals with urban planning, religious space, and craft. He works to revitalize underserved neighborhoods by combining urban planning and art practices.[2] Gates' art practice responds to disinvestment in African American urban communities, particularly in the wake of the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, addresses the importance of formal archives for remembering and valuing Black cultural forms, and disrupts artistic canons, especially those of Post-painterly abstraction and Color field painting.

Early life and education[]

Theaster Gates was born and raised in East Garfield Park on the West Side of Chicago.[3] He was the youngest of nine children and the only son. His father was a roofer, and his mother a school teacher. His sisters passed on their interest in civil rights activism, and the family attended a Baptist church where Gates, a choir member, became interested in performance. Gates attended Lane Technical High School.

In 1996, Gates graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. in Urban Planning and Ceramics. After college, Gates worked primarily in ceramics and spent a year in Tokoname, Japan, studying pottery. He decided he wanted to explore religion in South Africa, and in 1998 he received an M.A. at the University of Cape Town in Fine Arts and Religious Studies.[4]

Work[]

Early Work[]

Gates' early work centered on his training as a ceramicist and his study of comparative religions, and "many of his early projects addressed the shared significance of pottery in Japanese and African American cultures."[5]

In 2007, Gates organized a conceptual exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center titled Plate Convergence in which he staged a fictional event as an elaborate backstory for ceramic plates he had made. The fiction involved Shoji Yamaguchi, a Japanese-born potter who had emigrated to the United States after WWII and took up residence in Mississippi, where he married a local black woman and Civil Rights activist and designed a plate especially suitable for the cuisine of black people. The plate became a centerpiece of dinner parties and salons for discussing art and politics. In Gates' words, "As the story went, [Yamaguchi] and his wife died in a car accident in 1991 and their son founded the Yamaguchi Institute to continue their vision of social transformation. I made ceramic plates, videotaped highly curated dinners and found a space for an exhibition of the ceramics and video. We gave a huge Japanese soul-food dinner, made by a Japanese chef and my sister, in honor of the Yamaguchis and their dinners. A young mixed-race artist enacted the role of their son and thanked everyone for coming."[6]

In 2008, Gates created his second fictional institution, with the exhibition "Tea Shacks, Collard Greens and the Preservation of Soul" at a temporary gallery space in Chicago that Gates dubbed the Center for the Proliferation of Afro-Asian Artifacts.[7]

Rebuild Foundation[]

Main article: Rebuild Foundation

Gates is the founder and artist Director of the Rebuild Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on cultural-driven redevelopment and affordable space initiatives in under-resourced communities. Under Gates' leadership, the Rebuild Foundation currently manages projects in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood of Chicago. Rebuild received official 501(c)3 status in December 2010.[8] Program sites include the Stony Island Arts Bank, the Black Cinema House, the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative, Archive House, and Listening House.[9]

For the Dorchester Projects, Gates restored and converted vacant buildings into cultural institutions with archival collections from the South Side. Gates's Rebuild Foundation has renovated two houses on Dorchester Avenue, now called the Archive House and the Listening House. The Archive House holds 14,000 architecture books from a closed bookshop.[10] The Listening House holds 8,000 records purchased at the closing of Dr. Wax Records.[11]

Stony Island Arts Bank[]

In 2013, Gates purchased the Stony Island State Savings Bank from the city of Chicago.[12] The bank, now known as the Stony Island Arts Bank, contains the book collection of John H. Johnson, founder of Ebony and Jet magazines; the record collection of Frankie Knuckles, the godfather of house music; and slides of the collections of the University of Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago.[13] In 2015, his Stony Island work was included in the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial.[14] The physical location of the Bank has also allowed Gates to host temporary exhibitions of artists, such as Glenn Ligon.[15]

Work with Archival Collections[]

By working with archival collections centered in African American history, Gates' work addresses issues of history, memory, and the value ascribed to Black history and cultural production. His 2017 piece "plantation lullabies" involved 4,000 pieces of what Gates describes as "negrobilia."[16] This included: old sheet music, signs, pamphlets, coin banks, figurines - as part of the Edward Williams Collection. Similarly, his Black Image Corporation involved the use of John H. Johnson's photographic archive - with special focus being given to Black image-makers who were prominent during the civil rights era - Moneta Sleet, Jr and Isaac Sutton.[17]

University of Chicago Arts and Public Life initiative[]

Since 2011, Gates has been the director of Arts and Public Life at the University of Chicago. In this role, he oversees staff at the Arts Incubator in Washington Park and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, a wide network of resident and visiting artists (including current and former participants in our residency program), community participants, programmatic partners, and friends.[18] He is also a full professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University.

Gates is also the leader of the Place Lab, a partnership between Arts + Public Life and the Harris School of Public Policy, which is working to design and implement new approaches to urban development. The Place Lab partners with the demonstration cities of Gary, Akron, Detroit, and other Knight Foundation communities.[19]

Other exhibitions and performances[]

In January 2014 he designed a million-dollar installation for the South Side's 95th Street subway terminal. It is the largest public art project in the history of the Chicago Transit Authority.[12] He was participant at the 2012 DOCUMENTA (13) art show in Kassel, Germany, the 2010 Whitney Biennial in New York,[20] the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2010, the 2010 Art Chicago fair.[21] He was included in "Hand+Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft", at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and in 2013 had a solo show, 13th Ballad, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[22] On May 30, 2014, Gates and jazz pianist Jason Moran led a one-time performance entitled Looks of a Lot as part of the "Symphony Center Presents Jazz" series and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "Truth to Power Festival."

In October 2015, Gates created an installation at Temple Church, Bristol, England. Built in co-operation with its owner English Heritage, "Sanctum" will provide a venue with 24 hours of music and performance over 24 days, in a performance event funded by Arts Council England and developed as part of Bristol 2015 Green Capital.[23]

In October 2020, Gates opened a large scale show at Gagosian Gallery in New York City. The show titled is Black Vessel. The show explores themes of family life, maternal love, and manual labor. Many of the materials he used in the show are roofing materials, an homage to his father who worked as a roofer. The central installation is the main gallery, which Gates lined with bricks fired black at a South Carolina brickworks. Gates cited the COVID-19 pandemic and the time he spent alone as having created an environment within which to incubate his ideas.[24]

His exhibition Future Histories: Theaster Gates and Cauleen Smith, is at the SF MOMA from October 2020-May 2021.[25]

Recognition[]

Philanthropy[]

Since 2016, Gates has been serving on the board of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.[33]

In 2018, along with David Adjaye and Bono, Gates curated the third (RED) auction in Miami to support the Global Fund's work against AIDS,[34] raising a total $10.5 million including matching funds by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[35]

Since 2019, Gates has been co-chairing the fashion group Prada's Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council, alongside Ava DuVernay.[36][37]

Art market[]

Gates has been represented by White Cube since 2011[38] and Gagosian Gallery since 2018.[39] He previously worked with Regen Projects in Los Angeles and Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago.[40]

References[]

  1. ^ "Theaster Gates | Harris Public Policy". harris.uchicago.edu. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  2. ^ Moore, Natalie. "How Theaster Gates Is Revitalizing Chicago's South Side, One Vacant Building at a Time". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  3. ^ "Theaster Gates's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  4. ^ Colapinto, John. "The Real-Estate Artist". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  5. ^ Anagnost, Adrian (July 11, 2018). "Theaster Gates' Social Formations". nonsite.
  6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 30, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ Anagnost, Adrian (March 20, 2017). "Urban Alchemy: Theaster Gates on Chicago's South Side". Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Texas State University.
  8. ^ "Rebuild's Story". Rebuild Foundation. October 27, 2015. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  9. ^ "Sites". Rebuild Foundation. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  10. ^ Crow, Kelly (October 25, 2012). "The Artist Next Door". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  11. ^ McDonough, Tom (Winter 2015). "Theaster Gates". BOMB Magazine 130. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b John Colapinto (January 20, 2014). "The Real-Estate Artist: High-Concept Renewal on the South Side". The New Yorker.
  13. ^ Harris, Melissa (September 4, 2015). "First look inside Theaster Gates' new Stony Island Arts Bank". Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  14. ^ Heyman, Stephen (November 29, 2015). "Inside Chicago's Amazing First Architecture Biennial". Vogue.
  15. ^ "Theaster Gates | Interview | Black image Corporation". Gagosian Quarterly. August 24, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  16. ^ "Theaster Gates To Present New Performance "Plantation Lullabies"". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  17. ^ "Theaster Gates | Interview | Black image Corporation". Gagosian Quarterly. August 24, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  18. ^ "Who are we? | UChicago Arts | The University of Chicago". arts.uchicago.edu. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  19. ^ "About". Place Lab. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  20. ^ "Whitney Museum of American Art: Theaster Gates". Whitney.org. October 30, 2009. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  21. ^ Rachel Wolff (May 2010). "Theaster Gates Jr. shakes up his hometown art fair". Chicago magazine. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  22. ^ "Theaster Gates: 13th Ballad". MCA Chicago. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  23. ^ "Temple Church ruins turned in to Bristol's latest 24 hour music venue". Bristol Post. October 29, 2015. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  24. ^ "Feats of clay". The Economist (10 October 2020). The Economist Newspaper Limited. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  25. ^ "Future Histories: Theaster Gates and Cauleen Smith". SFMOMA. Retrieved March 10, 2021.
  26. ^ "Theaster Gates". Artadia. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  27. ^ "Theaster Gates – Fello Profile". United States Artists.
  28. ^ Crow, Kelly. "The Artist Next Door". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  29. ^ "Theaster Gates". Vera List Center.
  30. ^ "Artes Mundi winner Theaster Gates to share prize money". BBC News. January 23, 2015. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  31. ^ "2015 American Ingenuity Award Winners". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  32. ^ Anny Shaw (April 12, 2016), Theaster Gates wins Germany’s Kurt Schwitters Prize, The Art Newspaper.
  33. ^ Dan Duray (20 September 2016), Interview: David Adjaye and Theaster Gates on working in Washington, DC The Art Newspaper
  34. ^ Rachel Spence (2 November 2018), Bono, David Adjaye and Theaster Gates discuss their Red auction Financial Times.
  35. ^ (RED) Auction in Miami Raises $10.5 Million for the Fight Against AIDS Sotheby's, press release of 6 December 2018.
  36. ^ Prada announces the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council Prada, press release of 14 February 2019.
  37. ^ Keziah Weir (1 August 2019), Miuccia Prada, Luxury-Fashion Pioneer Vanity Fair.
  38. ^ Andrew Russeth (22 December 2011), Theaster Gates Joins White Cube New York Observer.
  39. ^ Andy Battaglia (28 November 2018), Gagosian to Represent Chicago-Based Artist Theaster Gates ARTnews.
  40. ^ Andy Battaglia (28 November 2018), Gagosian to Represent Chicago-Based Artist Theaster Gates ARTnews.

Bibliography[]

  • Carol Becker, Lisa Yun Lee, Achim Borchardt-Hume, Theaster Gates, Phaidon, London, 2015.
  • Bill Brown, Fred Moten, Jacqueline Terrassa, Theaster Gates: My Labor Is My Protest, White Cube, London, 2013.
  • Michael Darling, Matthew Day Jackson, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Theaster Gates: 12 Ballads for Huguenot House, Walther König, Cologne, 2012.

Further reading[]

External links[]

Retrieved from ""