Artist and Professor of Visual Arts, University of Chicago
Born in 1973 in the United States, Theaster Gates is an artist whose practice finds roots in conceptual formalism, sculpture, space theory, land art and performance. Trained in urban planning and within the tradition of Japanese ceramics, his artistic philosophy is guided by the concepts of Shintoism, Buddhism and animism – most notably honoring the "spirit within things."
Foundational to his practice is his custodianship and critical redeployment of culturally significant Black objects, archives and spaces. Through the expansiveness of his approach as a thinker, maker and builder, he extends the life of disappearing and bygone histories, places, traditions, and loved ones.
Mr. Gates has exhibited and performed at LUMA Arles, France (2023); the New Museum, New York (2022); Aichi Triennale, Tokoname, Japan (2022); Serpentine Pavilion, London (2022); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2021); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013 and 2021); Tate Liverpool, England (2020); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2020); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019); Sprengel Museum Hannover (2018); Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2018); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2017); Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada (2016); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2016); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2016); Punta della Dogana, Venice (2013); and Documenta 13 , Kassel (2012).
Mr. Gates is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Isamu Noguchi Award (2023); the National Buildings Museum Vincent Scully Prize (2023); the Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts (2022); an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects (2021); the World Economic Forum Crystal Award (2020); the J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development (2018); the Nasher Sculpture Prize (2018); the Sprengel Museum Kurt Schwitters Prize (2017); and the Artes Mundi 6 Prize (2015).
