Theaster Gates

Theaster Gates (born 28 August 1973) is an American social practice installation artist. Quotes Do we have the capacity to make the places where we work and live, the places that we advocate for The other part of belonging is that one usually doesn’t belong by themselves. Belonging has the word “longing” in it. There’s something about desire and togethernes We must consider what happens when there are laws that sanction the ability for people to really belong and they don’t want those other people to belong I feel like psychically in America, black people here don’t have the same kind of connection to this land because no one intended to foster that connection from the beginning When a white person comes in and says, “I’m building it for y’all,” that’s different than when a black person lives next door and says, “I’m building it for me and for us We’re immediately afraid that some unknown white force is on its way to take something from us. White forces have been taking things from us for a long time I’m now understanding that people aren’t afraid of gentrification, they’re afraid of the continued truth of invisible forces taking things that belonged to us Lessons from Chicago Civic Commons: A conversation on belonging with Theaster Gates 25 July 2019 I think that what culture does in its resilience is at the very moment where there’s the potential for the eradication of people’s histories, the artist is choosing to use history as their raw material The creative moment is when we imagine that one passion or vocation or disciplinary measure is able to aid another passion and disciplinary measure Part of what I am striving for is a whole life, a fulfilled life If we find ourselves in a situation where the only ambition within an artistic practice is a market ambition, then we are like many other professions. We’re not doing the best service that we can to the profession HOW A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE CAN AMPLIFY THE IMPACT OF ART 3 April 2026 That my heart feels good means I'm one with myself The way that I make sense of the world is with my body and through my body Making art is my political and social platform, and my spiritual and emotional platform I wanted to go to a place where Christianity was the third or fourth iteration of something that was actually Black, where the origin story that I knew growing up as a Christian was actually 2 or 3,000 years old, if not older Desire seems to be more closely connected to one's ego, the ego of a nation, the ego of a tribe, the ego of the individual seems to be the condition that is most easily solved for but so rarely wanted it would be easy for us all to cure world hunger, to stop using plastic, to create a better and more sustainable economy: all those things are very possible, but because of want and desire, they'll never be attainable People often imagine that you have to choose between success and political exactitude, that you can't have sincere beliefs and have resources. And what I tried to demonstrate is that even when I didn't have a lot, I could use whatever I had to create my own values I have a deep desire to take the energy of a place and match it with the beauty of that same place. Sometimes one space has energy and no beauty; another space has beauty but no energy THEASTER GATES with Phong H. Bui December/January 2020-2021 We should not have to be the ones who take on the question of police brutality in our country or black male violence in our country. We should not have to be the ones thinking about unfair labor practices Sometimes the artistic affect is better than policy, it’s more complicatedly inclusive than the town hall meeting Should art and culture be the thing that has the burden of changing communities? Probably not. Are there other things alongside art and culture that need to happen in order for a healthy community to emerge? Absolutely. Expanding the Role of the Artist n.d I’m tired of either/or. That’s not a truth that I was born into Art gives me permission to use the languages, filtered through my body and my set of political and ideological positions, and then the output of that is what it is Theaster Gates on Waking Up That Energetic Life 16 January 2026 External Links Theaster Gates