Theaster Gates is a Chicago-based artist whose work consists of sculpture, performance, land development, and social practice. Born in 1973 in Chicago’s West Side, Gates was the youngest of nine children. His father was a roofer and his mother was a schoolteacher. His love of performance and music was set in those early years by his participation in the church choir, and he gained a sense of space and an understanding of the way buildings play a part in the culture of communities through helping with his father’s roofing business.
In 1996, Gates received a Bachelor of Science degree in urban planning from Iowa State University. He studied pottery in Japan for a year, and went on to receive a Master of Arts in fine arts and religious studies from the University of Cape Town and a Master of Arts in urban planning, ceramics, and religious studies from Iowa State University.
In 2006, Gates began purchasing abandoned homes in the South Side of Chicago to rehabilitate using repurposed materials, converting them into alternative cultural spaces that preserves the historic Black culture of the South Side neighborhood. This has grown into the Rebuild Foundation, which has transformed nearly 40 buildings into aesthetic and affordable living and cultural spaces and created a community hub and art destination. Gates and the Rebuild Foundation have received much praise, as well as criticism for “artwashing” and gentrifying the neighborhood, making it unaffordable to the Black residents they aim to serve.
In addition to these larger scale projects, Gates’ background as a ceramic artist carries through in his love and use of everyday objects in his sculptures. They are part found-object, part restoration, and often hold some conceptual weight around remembrance, the beauty of the mundane, and a returned awareness elevating objects of the past.
Gate’s work is represented by numerous galleries and museums all over the world and he is an active voice for reform, revitalization, and the power of art within culture and communities.