American artist Theaster Gates (b. 1973) presents a new body of work, The Minor Arts, as part of the Tower exhibition series at the National Gallery of Art. It marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Washington and on the East Coast. As with his larger projects, Gates created this exhibition out of his collections of “modern castoffs,” a term he uses for materials that technology, the market, and history have left behind.
One of the installation’s highlights is, Slate Corridor for Possibility of Speaking in Tongues and Depositing Ghetto Reliquary (2017), a 48-foot-wide slate roof saved from the decommissioned St. Laurence Church in Chicago. By detaching the structure from its function and repositioning it at eye level, Gates brings the unseen into our view and highlights the aesthetic qualities of the roofer’s skillful work. Find out more about the Theaster Gates exhibition from the National Gallery of Art’s website.
Read an interview with Theaster Gates in the March issue of Apollo. Subscribe here
Preview the exhibition below | See Apollo’s Picks of the Week here
Installation view of A Game of My Own (2017), Theaster Gates. Courtesy of the artist, White Cube, and Regen Projects
Installation view of Something about Modernism and Death (2017), Theaster Gates. Courtesy of the artist, White Cube, and Regen Projects
Installation view of New Egypt Sanctuary of the Holy Word and Image and Elegua in Winter (2017), Theaster Gates. Courtesy of the artist, White Cube, and Regen Projects
Installation view of Something about Modernism and Death and Slate Corridor for Possibility of Speaking in Tongues and Depositing Ghetto Reliquary (2017), Theaster Gates. Courtesy of the artist, White Cube, and Regen Projects
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The many faces of Mary Magdalene