Theaster Gates: Unto Thee

A comprehensive overview of the work and creative practice of American artist Theaster Gates.

A self-designated “keeper of objects,” Theaster Gates investigates the value of things and their potential to hold layered meanings in his work. He activates these objects in a manner that nurtures space for disinvested histories—often Black histories. Part of his practice is also to create physical spaces for others, including through residencies he has established in Chicago’s South Side, such as through the Rebuild Foundation, Stony Island Arts Bank, and other projects. Taken together, Gates’s work is driven by questions around institutional and systemic structures, the erasure of Black histories, and ongoing social disinvestment in Black lives in Chicago and the United States.

Theaster Gates: Unto Thee is published in conjunction with the Smart Museum of Art’s exhibition on the artist. Edited by Galina Mardilovich and Vanja Malloy, the accompanying catalog expands on Gates’s artistic practice and features five essays by contributing scholars. Unto Thee marks the first major museum presentation of the Chicago artist in his hometown.

Galina Mardilovich is a curator at the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.

Vanja Malloy is the Dana Feitler Director at the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.