Theaster Gates

Over the last few years Theaster Gates has become known for his art centered on the perception of the viewer, the urban environment, and the reality of history, politics and society. Gates trained as both a sculptor and an urban planner and his works are rooted in a social responsibility as well as underpinned by a deep belief system. His installations and sculptures mostly incorporate found materials – often from the neighborhoods where he is engaged and have historical and iconic significance. His boxes are made of wood from abandoned buildings, but they are loaded with associations – this is how Gates refers to the patina of their history. This, and their minimal design, reminiscent of the art of the 1970s, invests them with purely visual meaning. The decommissioned fire hoses were bought from the barracks that helped police to control the civil rights marches in the 1960s by using water cannons. Rolled up into an artwork or turned into flags, they get charged with a subliminal meaning.

Gates' practice includes sculpture, installation, performance and urban interventions that aim to bridge the gap between art and life. He works as an artist, curator, urbanist and facilitator and his projects attempt to instigate the creation of cultural communities by acting as catalysts for social engagement that leads to political and spatial change. Anyone who looks at a work by Gates becomes part of that work.