THE NEW YORK TIMES By Yinka Elujoba
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“Walking Prayer,” 2018, includes bound embossed books and vintage Carnegie cast iron shelving. The backdrop is a room whose walls the artist fortified entirely with Roman bricks blackened with manganese dioxide and dye. Theaster Gates and Gagosian; Robert McKeever
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Theaster Gates, a social practice installation artist based in Chicago, is turning the history of Black labor in America on its head. Growing up in Chicago, Mr. Gates sang in a Baptist church, which sparked his interest in spirituality and music. Before Japan, he lived in South Africa, receiving a degree in Religious Studies. These inspirations may have influenced his creation of a room full of glazed and fired clay vessels that draw from Eastern, Western, and African instruments. In “
Black Vessel,” his first New York solo show at Gagosian on West 24th Street, he succeeds in celebrating the rugged, hard work of artisans today. [
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