THEASTER GATES.

What might be an artistic practice? Gates, whose ascent through the art world has been brisk, even by its warp-speed standards, moves beyond formalism and commemoration. He exploits the colours, grains and textures of the raw unvarnished woods and lets patterns emerge from the simple juxtaposition of different coloured strips.
 
It is clear that we have never seen an approach like Gates’. What amazed us is the massive ambition of his ideas. He employs the commercialism of the art world and his recent success to regenerate deprived neighbourhoods. He knows what he wants to do with some of this stuff, but much of it he collects without an immediate plan of action.
 
More recently he has worked with traditional Japanese ceramicists. Gates, who studied ceramics as a student, spent four months in Tokoname, Japan, working as a potter.
 
As well as his studies in urban planning and ceramics, Gates also brings to his practice vocal skills honed during years of going to church with his mother and, later, of leading its choir. He uses his singing in different ways. For instance, he addresses the crisis of obesity and diabetes in the black community, and the problem of junk food being pushed onto disadvantaged people.
 
Gates’ performances bring together two areas of his thought that most people would usually consider incompatible. He’s clearly informed by institutional critique, and his performances are also addressing real questions of economic inequality and political disenfranchisement affecting black people in the United States.
 
There’s always been a sense of spiritual heritage in what Gates does. It’s clearly a more personal form of art but an artist's effort to interact with communities can be seen as ephemeral interventions. Gates, of course, is hardly alone in turning scrap into gold or in producing works charged with social commentary, but he’s committed to staying in his neighbourhood.
 
Gates is part of a generation engaged in what has come to be called “social practice”, it’s social activism through art-making. He runs a tight ecosystem within the art world’s top tier, turning collectors of his works into backers of his community revival project. Profits from sales of his art support his studio and the Rebuild Foundation, which trains and employs a local workforce in demolition, masonry and other construction trades.
 
Gates is redefining the way we think about visual art and its potential to change the world. His aesthetic is minimalist but infused with a strong sense of narrative.