Latest news with #TheasterGates
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Major Theaster Gates retrospective to open at the Smart Museum this fall
You know who's never had a big solo museum show in his own hometown? Strange as this sounds: Theaster Gates, the renowned, longtime Chicago artist, sculptor, community developer, collector, painter and all-around renaissance man. That's why, beginning Sept. 23, the Smart Museum of Art (5550 S. Greenwood Ave.) at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park will open a landmark mid-career retrospective of Gates' far-flung art practices, using most of the museum's space, drawing on his paintings, pottery, films, installations and reclamation projects. 'Theaster Gates: Unto Thee,' set to run through Feb. 22, 2026, will be the first large-scale attempt by a Chicago institution to place a traditional museum framework around a local artist best known for 20 years of non-traditional, not-always-gallery-obvious works. How, after all, can a gallery develop a retrospective of an artist whose acclaim often derives from the transformation of South Side communities? Depending on the critic, Gates, 51, a professor of visual art at the University of Chicago, is a land artist. Or he occupies the social practice niche of the arts world. Or he's an essayist revisiting little-known histories using salvaged materials. Or he's just an ambitious archivist. ArtReview called Gates a 'poster boy for socially engaged art.' England's Tate Liverpool museum described him as no less than 'one of the world's most influential living artists.' Yet he's not often shown in Chicago. He began as a potter and has since created hundreds of installations, paintings and sculptures, but Gates is still best known for remaking a series of bungalows in the Dorchester neighborhood into sort-of living artworks, employing the reclaimed materials from those buildings and making room for local artists. He's bought up the entire stock of a fading record store. He's acted as preservationist for the last remnants of Johnson Publishing (the Chicago home of Ebony and Jet magazines). In 2015, he reopened a 1923 savings and loan as the Stony Island Arts Bank, a combination exhibition space, library, archive and home to the Rebuild Foundation, his group focused on using arts and culture to revitalize disinvested Chicago spaces. In a quiet spot on Stony Island Avenue, beside the bank, is the gazebo in which 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by Cleveland police in 2014. Gates reclaimed that, too. How, in other words, does a museum do justice to that inside gallery walls? The Smart's answer is by mingling Gates' creations with his reclaimed projects, then expanding the exhibition into a number of the places developed by Gates, many of which are only blocks away from the institution. 'A traditional museum show keeps most of its programming inside the museum,' said Smart Director Vanja Malloy. 'But the experience of some of the places Theaster invested in is really only captured by going there.' Programming will sprawl to Stony Island and beyond; the opening reception will happen simultaneously at the Smart and Gates' other spaces. This is not, of course, Gates' first substantial exhibition. Far from it. The Museum of Contemporary Art, in 2013, hosted a large installation by Gates of repurposed pews from Bond Chapel at the University of Chicago. He's had major showings at the Venice Biennale, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and countless international galleries. A 2007 solo show at the Hyde Park Art Center focused on dozens of Gates' clay plates. 'Unto Thee,' though, will showcase new paintings, sculptures and films, beside such reclamation works as Bond's church pews, a chunk of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, the personal library of University of Chicago Slavic language professor Robert Bird. Part of Gates' practice has been repurposing artifacts and collections cast off by the university. 'People talk about the art world like it's a monolith,' Gates said, 'and maybe Chicago institutions just had a specific sense of who was important at various moments. Plus, I am from Chicago but my studies were in Iowa, at Harvard, in South Africa. And I didn't go to art school. I was without a (museum) cohort in Chicago. People early in my career would ask what was there to buy? It was a badge of honor I led with ideas, though since those days, I've had a significant practice making objects. It just played out elsewhere. When I came home, I feel more like a nonprofit leader.' Indeed, if there's a theme in Gates' work, it's the stories and echoes heard from objects and materials those objects are made from. The exhibition will feature, for instance, glass slides Gates recovered from the art history department. Of 60,000 slides, only 50 were of African art; those were also marked 'primitive.' For the lobby of the Smart, Gates is creating a new installation using more than 350 African masks he recently acquired. Some are masterful works, but others are tourist trinkets, and when he bought the collection, both disposable and important were mixed together. 'I grew up in a situation where my mom and dad pointed towards happiness whenever they were broke,' he said. 'We would go to Mississippi in the summer and it wasn't a question of do we repair our old barn or get a new one. A new one wasn't an option. See, when obsolescence is not an option, you look more closely at what you have. My parents were hoarders, they just understood there is more life in a thing than most of us attribute. My practice is partly the demonstration of appreciating the things you have.' The retrospective, co-curated by Malloy and curator Galina Mardilovich, is the first exhibition that Malloy, a rising star in the museum scene, developed for the Smart after becoming director in 2022. Next year, she's leading the first Midwest exhibition of the Japanese collective teamLab, known for its immersive, science-based installations. Malloy, whose doctorate in art history considered the ways modern science influenced modern art, imagines 'the next chapter for the Smart going beyond Humanities. How do we partner with physics? Computer science? Chemistry?' She also anticipates a renewed commitment from the Smart, now in its 50th year, to local artists. 'I got to know Theaster when I was approached for this job,' she said. 'Until then I hadn't really appreciated the depth to which Chicago influenced his work or how he influenced the city. I asked him if he ever had a big solo museum show. When he said no, that sounded like a lost opportunity. I'm saying this as an outsider who only moved to the city two and half years ago, but perhaps Chicago didn't appreciate what it had?'
Times
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Corinne Bailey Rae review — a generally excellent orchestral remix
A lavish musical feast with a side order of critical race theory, Corinne Bailey Rae's bespoke show for the Roundhouse's Three Sixty festival served up an ambitious orchestral remix of the Leeds-born singer-songwriter's 2023 album, Black Rainbows. Inspired by multiple visits to the Stony Island Arts Bank — a hybrid gallery and museum space opened by the artist Theaster Gates in Chicago's south side in 2015 — the album is a richly imaginative rumination on African-American history and culture, as interpreted by a British musician of mixed heritage. Black Rainbows is a fantastic piece of work, Bailey Rae's most musically and thematically adventurous album to date. Backed by about 40 members of the Guildhall Session Orchestra, composed of alumni from London's prestigious music school,
The National
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Prada Mode Abu Dhabi ‘is a place for humanity', says curator Theaster Gates
Prada Mode has taken over a space in Abu Dhabi's MiZa district. The event has been curated by American multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates. Gates lives and works in Chicago where he is a professor at the University of Chicago in the department of visual arts and the college. But his work has shaped his city in many ways, with a practice focused on space theory, land development, sculpture and performance. Drawing on his interest and experience in urban planning and preservation, Gates 'redeems spaces that have been left behind'. This is particularly apt in MiZa, which, while it has never been left behind is certainly undergoing a regeneration – and finding a new purpose – as a home for the creative industries. This is the third time Gates has worked with Prada Mode on a curatorial mission. 'The first one was a celebration of the black image. The second one was a celebration of black and brown people in London, almost like one of my black artists retreats,' explains Gates. 'And this one is a celebration of the Middle East and the UAE.' 'The company is amazing to work with,' he says of Prada. 'The production team is an amazing production team. If it were just a party, it would probably not be my jam.' Gates certainly has bigger ambitions for the project than a simple space to party. The space he has created offers two tonally and sonically distinct experiences - one encased in a square, the other in a circle. The cylindrical structure is reserved for performances that require quiet and active listening from the audience, while the square operates as a more freeform space, open to conversations and chatter. 'It's a place for humanity, it's a place for all of the diasporic folk of this region to come home and to share their ideas, to share how they are changed, to share how they're even more nuanced than when they left so I'm excited to learn,' says Gates, alluding to many of the guests and performers from the Arab diaspora. Musicians Saint Levant and Bayou were also spotted at the event. 'Folk love Prada,' says Gates. 'We're here because a brand has an amazing connection here. On one level, it's Prada saying 'thank you' to its constituents. And then when given the charge, Prada Mode can be anything the artist wants. If the artist is bombastic, it can be a bombastic situation. But I tried to listen to Abu Dhabi first.' Gates is well-known for his large-scale urban regeneration projects in Chicago, which blur the line between art and property development. One thing his works have in common is their desire to bring people together. "I think in some ways the goal of Prada Mode is to bring these disparate worlds that normally wouldn't come together, together,' he says. Art may not unify "but it can congregate" and bring in people from other places, he adds. Prior to Tuesday's opening of the space – which acts as a travelling members' club – Gates spent time discovering the emirate, in particular, the Mina Zayed area. 'You can feel that there's a real desire to say 'yes' to culture in new ways,' he says. He believes Abu Dhabi is still developing its cultural independence and voice and being involved in the city's efforts to celebrate its local culture is meaningful, as it helps showcase and nurture the creative scene. 'Seeking and searching was part of what made a person's humanity so deep and now we have everything at our fingertips,' he says, while he ponders one of the event's themes focused on interiority in a time of overwhelming technology. He certainly seems to be on a mission of seeking during his sojourn in Abu Dhabi. 'What do I think I could learn from an Islamic country?" he says. "I think I can learn the importance of having a life of ritual that is consistently seeking god all day every day, right?' 'We've already borrowed from India, we've already borrowed yoga as a meditative practice,' he says of this hunger within him, but wider Western societies want something they can't quite put their finger on. 'They're hungry for an interior life and they're hungry to connect their minds and their bodies.' Gates once said that when art is present, things are better. But is this always the case, even when he thinks of the difficult time the region and the world are going through? 'I really believe that there are so many other agencies and entities that could precede the artist in being at a front line of some sort,' he says. 'You know there was a time when I was a bit more outdoorsy than I am now. "When you pitch a tent, you just start with one stake. It's like a point in geometry. You need a point. I think that there are moments when artists can be a necessary first point, a locational point. Somebody has a stake and they put it in the ground.' Prada Mode is open as a member-only club on Tuesday and Wednesday and opens to the public on Thursday and Friday
Emirates Woman
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Emirates Woman
The Prada Mode pop Up has landed in Abu Dhabi
Fashion by Team Emirates Woman 37 seconds ago Here's everything you need to know about the exclusive Prada Mode pop-up in Abu Dhabi… Storied Italian fashion house Prada is well known for its haute travelling social club, Prada Mode. And finally, the UAE capital can embrace the world of Prada Mode as the high fashion pop-up has touched down in Abu Dhabi. Taking place at MiZa in Mina Zayed from Tuesday February 11 until Friday February 14, fashion lovers can look forward to a full immersion into Italian fashion powerhouse's all-encompassing celebration of contemporary culture. On the first two days, the event is open to members only, but on Thursday and Friday it's open to the public with pre-registration. If you haven't registered already, you can do so here. It's free to register. What to expect at Prada Mode in Abu Dhabi View this post on Instagram A post shared by Prada (@prada) The Prada Mode pop-up has been created in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates, with UAE-based art advisor Myrna Ayad curating the programming. This will be the third Prada Mode pop-up brought to life through Gates' vision, with the artist also behind Prada Mode's debuts in Miami in 2018 and London in 2019. Visually, the pop-up is set to focus on minimal and analogue, a rebellion against the digitally driven and AI-focused society we currently live in. The space is described as a 'manifestation of duality, rooted in ideas of elegant austerity, historic craft, and sacred immediacy.' On the programming front, music, workshops and talks will focus on both local and regional talent, with conversations and performances designed to highlight the traditions, creativity and successes of Arab women. The culinary also contributes to the local flavour, and renowned female chef Salam Dakkak, the chef and owner behind beloved Bait Maryam and newly opened Sufret Maryam, will create the menu. So, expect to sample rich and diverse flavours from across the UAE. Find out more at
