Theaster Gates

As a sculptor and urban planner by training, Gates’ practice investigates and aims to bridge the gulf between art and society by establishing cultural platforms as a way of initiating social, political, architectural, and urban change. Among the artist’s initiatives, Dorchester Projects began as an artistic endeavor on Chicago’s South Side which launched his ongoing interrogation of land, ownership, and varying formal trajectories of artistic engagement. Most recently his work was presented in solo exhibitions at Kuntsmuseum Basel, Sprengel Museum in Hannover, as well as Fondazione Prada in Milan. In 2018, he was awarded the Nasher Prize for Sculpture, as well as the Urban Land Institute’s J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.