#theastergates

#BlackResistance

Some of the powerhouse contemporary artists’ books from the stacks!

Dawoud Bey on photographing people and communities / photographs and text by Dawoud Bey ; introduction by Brian Ulrich. 2019. HOLLIS number: 99153846094103941

Lorna Simpson / Thelma Golden, Kellie Jones, Chrissie Iles, Naomi Beckwith. 2022

HOLLIS number: 99156213824303941

Kara Walker : Dust jackets for the niggerati. 2013. HOLLIS number: 990138041340203941

I'm / Deborah Roberts. 2021. HOLLIS number: 99156414672603941

Glenn Ligon : unbecoming / Judith Tannenbaum ; with essays by Richard Meyer and Thelma Golden ; and an interview with Glenn Ligon by Byron Kim. c1997

HOLLIS number: 990076940110203941

Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems : in dialogue / Ron Platt and Kinshasha Holman Conwill. 2022. HOLLIS number: 99156378937603941

Double consciousness : Black conceptual art since 1970 : Terry Adkins, EdgarArceneaux, Sanford Biggers ... / essay by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Franklin Sirmans. 2005. HOLLIS number

990095704830203941

Radical presence : black performance in contemporary art / Valerie Cassel Oliver ; essays by Yona Backer, Naomi Beckwith, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Tavia Nyong'o, Clifford Owens, Franklin Sirmans. 2013. HOLLIS number: 990137858880203941

Sanford Biggers / organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by Lisa Melandri.

2019. HOLLIS number: 99153814871703941

Theaster Gates : black archive / Kunsthaus Bregenz ; Herausgeber, Thomas D. Trummer.

2017. HOLLIS number: 990149445900203941

In Case of Race Riot II, Theaster Gates, 2011, Brooklyn Museum: Contemporary Art

©Theaster Gates Size: 32 x 25 x 6 in. (81.3 x 63.5 x 15.2 cm) Medium: Wood, metal, hoses

January 26, 2017 “Pedagogy. Place. Liberation.” Salon Session, Ethical Redevelopment

Place Lab Chicago Salon Member Article

https://placelab.uchicago.edu/site-blog/

I was asked to join Place Lab as a Chicago-based Salon Member and recently submitted this article for the “Ethical Redevelopment” principle, one of nine core areas of focus.  I wrote about the connections between Afro-Futurism and pedagogy, highlighting many of my favorite works including recent presentations by SAIC students in the first “Afro-Futurism: Pathways to Black Liberation” course I offered there in Fall 2016.

We begin celebrating the Black History Month with Theaster Gates’ Black Madonna Press.

Theaster Gates’s practices include a wide range of community engagement, land development, sculpture, and performance in the intersection of art and social progress. Gates founded the Rebuild Foundation, a non-profit organization to dedicated to supporting artists and strengthening communities. The foundation’s work is guided by three core values: black people matter, black spaces matter, and black objects matter.

Gates’ Black Madonna Press utilized 13,000 of almost 4 million images from the archives of the Johnson Publishing Company, which published magazines on Black culture and achievement since 1942. Gates incorporated letterpress printing with early images from Ebony and Jet magazines. His project was displayed at the Kunstmuseum Basel Neubau and Gegenwart from June 9, 2018 to October 21, 2018.

You can watch Gates talking about his inspiration for Black Madonna on YouTube.

Artist Theaster Gates's contributions to the Obama Presidential Center makes me excited about visiting when it opens in 2026!

"The Obama Presidential Center Announces Latest Art Commission, An Expansive Frieze by Artist Theaster Gates

A landmark public artwork by the renowned Chicago-based artist will anchor the Hadiya Pendleton Atrium, celebrating Black Chicago’s legacies of creative power, self-determination, and indefatigable resolve."

Read more: https://www.obama.org/press-releases/the-obama-presidential-center-announces-latest-art-commission-an-expansive/

Reposted from @obamafoundation Chicago’s own @TheasterGates is the latest world-class artist whose work will appear at the Obama Presidential Center — and be free to the public to experience.

His installation will span the Forum Building's Hadiya Pendleton Atrium—named for the 15-year-old Chicago student who marched in President Obama’s second inauguration parade and was killed due to gun violence.

The piece will continue Theaster Gates’ ongoing practice of exalting Black cultural legacies through the preservation of archives and everyday materials, particularly through the Johnson Publishing Company image archive, bringing renewed value to the histories of self-determination, creative power, and collective memory that have shaped American life. As Theaster says:

“At a time when artists are increasingly playing a critical role in protecting memory and in contributing to the democratic ideals that continue to shape who we are and what we strive to become, it is deeply meaningful to contribute to this historic space.”

And until we open, you can visit “Unto Thee,” Gates' solo museum exhibition on view in his hometown of Chicago, at @smartmuseum , open now until Feb. 22, 2026.

📍White Cube New York

1002 Madison Avenue, #NYC

https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/theaster-gates-new-york-2

www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/theaster-gates-new-york-2

Reposted from @whitecube White Cube New York is pleased to present ‘Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me’, an exhibition by #TheasterGates.

[On view January 26 - March 2, 2024]

Join us for an evening preview from 6–8pm on Thursday 25 January 2024 to celebrate the opening of the artist’s solo exhibition.

Across sculpture, painting and installation, the artist creates a series of material pairings indicative of musical harmonic devices.

Shifting the ideology of art from visually based to metronomic, the exhibition explores the darker resonating tones that articulate how sound holds pain and suffering, joy and temporality, memory and contingency.

Images 1-3: Theaster Gates, ‘Sweet Sanctuary, Your Embrace’, 2023 © Theaster Gates. Photos © White Cube (On White Wall).

Reposted from @theastergates Hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me. Mid-way through the song, #BeRealBlackForMe, this is what #RobertaFlack and #DonnyHathaway say to each other. This refrain moves me so deeply. The harmony associated with this refrain is a portal of vulnerability. The call to love, togetherness and tenderness epitomizes the music of this duet and the individual musical intentions. Hold me was holding up the black experience of the 1970s! I have a desire to capture certain moments and not let them go; to hold memory, touch and color and hear these characters in my body. My show at @whitecube is a reflection on these ideas. I'm invested in the way sound and time are synced, emotion and place are inseparable and power and color exalt each other. I keep thinking about Donny and Roberta and their friendship, soul music's tragedy, Johnson publishing's ubiquitous potency, making and mental health. This project is about so many things for me. Sometimes, I don't know exactly how to calibrate my intensities, but I hate coding for others. If you find yourself in nyc, come see the work.