Gagosian gallery will represent Theaster Gates, with plans for a first show with the Chicago-based artist in New York in spring 2020.
Gates’s wide-ranging practice involves work in many mediums, including sculpture, painting, video, performance, ceramics, and music, as well various activities aligned with the prospect of urban renewal in Chicago and beyond.
Since 2010, the artist’s Rebuild Foundation has worked toward “providing free arts programming, creating new cultural amenities, and developing affordable housing, studio, and live-work space”—with a mission statement that centers on three core values: “black people matter, black spaces matter, and black objects matter.”
A press release from Gagosian said, “After a period of intense activity and reflection, Gates has declared his desire to focus more intently on his own oeuvre and the artworks that come out of his explorations of value, economy, and material exchange in charged social contexts. As Gates’s first gallery representative in New York, Gagosian will support the realization of exhibitions and projects across the full scope of his praxis in the context of broader intergenerational and intercultural dialogues in today’s global art scene.”
Gates will continue to be represented by Regen Projects in Los Angeles, White Cube in London, and Chicago’s Richard Gray Gallery, which will present a show of his work at Gray Warehouse next spring.