Theaster Gates
1973–
Introduction
Theaster Gates (US: ; born August 28, 1973) is an American social practice installation artist and a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he still lives and works.
Gates' work has been shown at major museums and galleries internationally and deals with urban planning, religious space, and craft. He works to revitalize underserved neighborhoods by combining urban planning and art practices. Gates' art practice responds to disinvestment in African-American urban communities, particularly after the 2008 financial crisis, addresses the importance of formal archives for remembering and valuing Black cultural forms, and disrupts artistic canons, especially those of post-painterly abstraction and color field painting.
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed July 18, 2026.
Introduction
Gates earned a Master in Urban Planning, Ceramics, and Religious Studies from Iowa State University in 1996; later, he became a professor at the University of Chicago in the Visual Arts department.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, ceramicist, educator, performance artist, potter, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500294129
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed July 18, 2026.
