HANK WILLIS THOMAS
Conceptual Artist
Hank Willis Thomas works primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad including the International Center of Photography, New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; Musée du quai Branly, Paris; Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Netherlands. Thomas’ work is included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. His collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males, In Search Of The Truth (The Truth Booth), and For Freedoms, which was awarded the 2017 ICP Infinity Award for New Media and Online Platform. In 2012, Question Bridge: Black Males debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected for the New Media Grant from the Tribeca Film Institute. Thomas is also the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (2017), Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), and is a member of the New York City Public Design Commission. Thomas holds a B.F.A. from New York University (1998) and an M.A./M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts (2004). He received honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute of Art and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in 2017. Thomas is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Ben Brown Fine Art.
Original Works Leveraged for Artist Collection
Image courtesy of Hank Willis Thomas and New York Magazine
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
ALL LI ES MATTER, a special edition to benefit Public Art Fund, 2019
Screen print with UV gloss clear on 270gsm ebony paper
Unframed Dimensions: 24 x 18 in.
Design first presented here:
50 New York Covers: A Public Art Project, 2018
Artist Statement
“It seems so obvious that many people are lying when they say ‘All lives matter,’ If you believe all lives matter, then you’d also acknowledge that black lives matter, and those same people would be marching alongside if they believed that.” - Hank Willis Thomas
Image courtesy of Hank Willis Thomas and Goodman Gallery
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
A Place to Call Home (Africa-America), 2009
Polished Aluminum with powdered coat
80 x 66 inches installed
Design first presented here:
Goodman Gallery, South Africa, 2009
Artist Statement
"There’s this mythical connection to Africa that is embedded in your identity, but many people go to Africa looking for home and don’t find it because our roots are so diluted there. They also never felt at home in the U.S., where they were born. I wanted to make a place where African-Americans come from.” - Hank Willis Thomas
Image courtesy of Hank Willis Thomas and Portland Art Museum
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
The Fall of Icarus (La chute d'Icare), 2017
Mixed media including sport jerseys
96 x 72 inches (approximate)
Design first presented here:
Private commission in 2017, first presented at "All Things Being Equal.." survery show at the Portland Art Museum 2019
Artwork Testimonial
"This quilt originates with Henri Matisse’s The Fall of Icarus from 1943. For his work, Matisse cut out large pieces of solid color paper, arranging them to create an image of Icarus, a figure from Greek mythology. Icarus longed to fly and fashioned wings that were held together with wax. Disregarding his father’s warning, Icarus flew too close to the sun, which melted his wings, and he plummeted to earth. Thomas’s version uses jerseys of NBA superstars from teams in New York, Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles. These places symbolize American cities plagued by gun violence. The youthful figure’s heart explodes in its chest."
- Sara Krajewski, co-curator of the exhibition and The Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; Portland Art Museum
Image courtesy of Hank Willis Thomas
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
Untitled from the Wayfarer series, 2012
Digital c-print, varies
Design first presented here:
ICP, 2013
Artwork Testimonial
"ICP is launching Picture Windows, a new series of site-specific installations from a global selection of contemporary artists. The inaugural project features work by conceptual photographer Hank Willis Thomas in collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers and examines themes of multiplicity, identity, performance, and gesture. Clad in a divided black and white suit, top hat, and dress shoes, Biggers strikes 13 distinct poses that allude to ""dandies,"" vaudeville performers, dancers, and even Kabuki actors. Inspired by a portrait of a late-19th-century performer, the costume also refers to the Yoruba deity Elegba, the protector of travels and crossroads...This figure, costumed in black and white, refers to the Yoruba deity of Elegba, the protector of travelers and crossroads. The bifocality of the series references in between spaces, transition, and dual consciousness.” - ICP, Hank Willis Thomas and Sanford Biggers
Image courtesy of Hank Willis Thomas and Baltimore Museum of Art
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
I Am A Man, 2009
Liquitex on canvas
25 1/4 x 19 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. 55 ½" x 228 x 2 1/4 inches installed.
25 1/4 x 19 1/4 x 2 1/4 per panel
Design first presented here:
"Pitch Blackness", solo exhibiton at Jack Shainman Gallery, 2009
Artist Statement
For this painting, the artist was specifically inspired by a particular photograph from the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike, where a large group of black men assembled with protest posters bearing the same message and nearly identical typeface. The artist has also created many other version of this painting that play with the orientation and wording of the text (ie: A Man I Am, I Be a Man, I Am Many, I Am The Man, etc.), reflecting historically on the variations that have been used before, and speculating on how they may continue in the future. Of this series the artist recalls:“I was born in 1976, and I was amazed that just eight years before I was born it was necessary for people to hold up signs affirming their humanity. The phrase that I grew up with was “I am the man,” which is also influenced by African-American culture but takes a very different starting point. What I was interested in was, how many other ways could I read that phrase?… In the U.S. Constitution, blacks were considered three-fifths of a man. Then there was the slogan adopted by the Quakers, “Am I not a man and a brother?” There are a lot of other references, like “Ain’t I a Woman?” is a reference to Sojourner Truth’s famous speech, but also the Women’s Liberation movement. The final painting in the group says “I am. Amen.” The greatest revelation should be that we are.” - Hank Willis Thomas
Photograph by Mariah Tiffany, Courtesy of Sites Unseen
HANK WILLIS THOMAS
LOVE OVER RULES, 2017, neon, 6’ x 6’
Permanent public installation
Yerba Buena: 165 Jessie Street
Design first presented here:
Sites Unseen, Yerba Buena, 2017
Artist Statement
The piece is an homage to the artist's cousin, Songha Willis, who was murdered in Philadelphia in 2000. The words represent the last message Willis left his cousin before his death.
"A month after he died, I found a recording of the incident, and his last words were 'love over rules.' When I received the opportunity to create a public art installation, I thought about him and how his last words could inspire people everyday, reminding them to be generous… Love is a verb of action. Its meaning goes beyond the romantic idea of it. Love is an invitation to people to stand up and be generous every day of their lives. It is not an action of receiving, but rather an action of giving. My question is what you do to give love? How love is breaking the rules you have in your life?” - Hank Willis Thomas