Theaster Gates

Press Release VOL.1

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei
April 24 [Wed] - September 1 [Sun], 2024 Mori Art Museum [53F, Roppongi Hills Mori TOWER]HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED, MUST-SEE FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION BY AN ENTHRALLINGBLACK ARTIST IN JAPAN, WITH EPIC INSTALLATION IMAGINING A NEW HYBRID OF
BLACK AND JAPANESE CULTURES THROUGH CERAMICS, ARCHITECTURE, AND MUSIC

The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, is proud to present the exhibition titled Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei from
Wednesday, April 24, to Sunday, September 1, 2024.
Based on the South Side of Chicago, IL, Theaster Gates (b. 1973 in Chicago) has earned international
acclaim for a practice that traverses multiple media and genres, primarily focusing on sculpture andceramics but also encompassing architecture, music, performance, fashion and design. Trained as asculptor and urban planner, Gates has been influenced by Japanese craft and culture over the past 20
years. He first traveled to in 2004 Japan to study ceramics in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture. His deep
encounters in Japan and across the Asia-Pacific, coupled with his experiences as an African-American
man with roots in Mississippi and Chicago have been the keystones of his creative process. Gates, who
has explored cultural hybridity over the course of his practice, coined the term “Afro-Mingei ,” his uniqueconceptual framework fusing the philosophies of the Japanese Mingei Movement and the aesthetics of the“Black Is Beautiful” cultural movement that played a signiﬁcant part in the American Civil Rights Movement(1954-1968). Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei is Gates’ ﬁrst solo exhibition in Japan and largest-ever in Asia,with the speculative proposition of “Afro-Mingei” placed as the central backbone of the presentation. This
exhibition showcases major bodies of existing and never-before-seen work that demonstrate the inﬂuenceof Japanese culture on his practice.
As the world reexamines the historical and contemporary prominence of certain voices and seeks
to diversify the perspectives represented, the global art scene has been increasingly interested in themultiplicity of experiences reflected in the work of leading Black artists. While Black histories remain
relatively little known among theJapanese public, this exhibition
demonstrates its growing attention toBlack art through the multidimensional
practice of Theaster Gates. AfroMingei will convey the importance ofcontemporary art that honors craft,ask us to consider questions of raceand politics, and celebrate the hybrid
possibilities of culture.

Doric Temple
2022 High-ﬁred stoneware with glaze
Installation view: Theaster Gates: Young Lords and Their Traces ,New Museum, New York, 2022-2023
Photo: Chris Strongpress release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

1/6

Theaster Gates

Press Release VOL.1

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Message FROM THE ARTIST, THEASTER GATESFor more than 20 years, the Mingei Movement has been an important guidepost for me in understanding the mechanics ofcelebration associated with the beauty that a people make. The Mingei Movement, like the Black Power Movement of theUnited States, was attempting to preserve and honor a very specific past as the west quickly encroached. While both had
blind spots, biases and detractors, their resolve was to celebrate the local, raise awareness of beauty and honor the power ofculture. Afro-Mingei is an attempt to marry the most signiﬁcant movements of my artistic journey.

BIOGRAPHY
Born 1973 in Chicago, IL, where he continues to live, Theaster Gates studied urban design,ceramics, religion, and visual art at Iowa State University and the University of Cape Town, South
Africa. He masterfully translates the intricacies of Blackness through clay, objecthood, music,
film, space and materiality. In 2004, Gates began his now twenty-year engagement with theceramic legacies of the city of Tokoname in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, where he participated in theInternational Workshop of Ceramic Art in Tokoname [IWCAT] pottery homestay program andcontinues to honor and artistically invest in local makers and craft histories. In recent years, he
has had major solo exhibitions at such institutions as the New Museum (New York, 2022–23),
Serpentine Pavilion (London, 2022), Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2021), Walker Art Center(Minneapolis, 2019–20), Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin, 2019), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2019), andFondazione Prada (Milan, 2018). In Japan, Gates exhibited at the Aichi Triennale 2022, and in
2019 was selected for the Obayashi Foundation Research Program, “Visions of the City.”
Theaster Gates at his Chicago studio
Photo: Chris Strong

General Information
Exhibition Title: Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei
Organizer: Mori Art Museum
Curated by: Tokuyama Hirokazu (Associate Curator, Mori Art Museum), Kataoka Mami (Director, Mori Art Museum)
Exhibition Period: April 24 [Wed] - September 1 [Sun], 2024
Venue: Mori Art Museum, 53F, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Hours: 10:00-22:00 | Tue: 10:00-17:00 | * Open until 22:00 on Tuesdays of April 30 and August 13.
* Admission until 30 minutes before closing. | * Open every day.
Admissions:［Weekdays］［Sat., Sun. & Holidays］

On-SiteOnlineOn-SiteOnlineAdults¥ 2,000¥ 1,800¥ 2,200¥ 2,000

Students (University/High School)¥ 1,400¥ 1,300¥ 1,500¥ 1,400

Children (Jr. High Students and under)
Seniors (Ages 65 and over)Free (across the board)¥ 1,700¥ 1,500¥ 1,900¥ 1,700* It is encouraged to make advance booking for a designated date/time slot and purchase the admission ticket on the booking website.
* Admissions without advance bookings will be allowed so far as the time slots have not ﬁlled up on the day of your visit.
* All prices include tax.
* Ticket also valid for admission into the following Mori Art Museum small programs that run concurrently: MAM Collection 018: Nguyen Trinh Thi;
MAM Screen 019: The Dawn of Taiwanese Video Art in the 1980s-1990s (Screening) ; and MAM Research 010: The Dawn of Taiwanese Video
Art in the 1980s-1990s (Exhibition) .

General Inquiries: 050-5541-8600 (Hello Dial, within Japan) / +81-(0)47-316-2772 (Hello Dial, from overseas)www.mori.art.museum/enpress release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

2/6

Theaster Gates

Press Release VOL.1

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

EXHIBITION FEATURES AND HIGHLIGHTS

Largest-ever solo exhibition in Japan by a Black artist
Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei offers the priceless opportunity toexperience major past works and never-seen-before new works created
for this exhibition from a prominent practitioner of Black art, a domainthat has been attracting growing interest from the international art worldin recent years. The all-embracing content, including an introduction to
the Black histories and cultures that underpin Gates’ practice, makes it
the largest-ever exhibition of its kind to be staged in Japan. Featured isa substantial body of work, including a large-scale installation utilizing
ceramics made in Tokoname and Gates ’ own ceramic sculptures,
collections of historical archival materials, tar paintings, soundinstallations, and video works.

Installation view: Theaster Gates: A Clay Sermon ,Whitechapel Gallery, London,
2021-2022
Photo: Theo Christelis
Photo courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery, London

Showcases Black history’s inﬂuence on contemporary culture, from the“ Black Is Beautiful ” Movement to speculative futures envisaged by Gates
The Black craft practices, art, music, and fashion that have played major roles in past resistance to antiBlack discrimination and oppression including Black Lives Matter (BLM), now have a higher profile than everbefore, thanks in part to Gates’ artistic interventions elevating histories of the past that others had written
off. It indeed reﬂects a culture that has actively and creatively resisted centuries of racial violence and colonial
exploitation. In Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei , Gates’ multidisciplinary oeuvre will demonstrate the importanceand emergence of Black culture today.

Presents Gates’ representative projects of spatial practices
including architectural projects centered in Chicago
Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei employs archival materials to introduce
Gates’ world-renowned architectural interventions through one of his
best-known projects: the Rebuild Foundation ( 2009- ) . Undertaken
on Chicago’s South Side, a predominantly Black community that was
intentionally isolated and denied equal right to property and city-wide
investment, Gates, through Rebuild Foundation, has rescued over 40
buildings from abandonment, transforming them into spaces of public
engagement with art and culture. The Foundation ’s work includes
archiving and presenting important collections of objects that chronicle
Black history and culture. For example, Gates stewards and invites thecommunity to witness and participate in the preservation of culturally
and historically valuable objects from the archives of the Chicago-based
Johnson Publishing Company (JPC), publishers of the widely circulated
periodicals in the second half of the 20th century on Black life, Ebony
and Jet magazines, and the personal collection of records of the late
“Godfather of House Music ” Frankie Knuckles ( 1955-2014 ) , just to
name a few.

Stony Island Arts Bank
(exterior) [top] / (interior) [bottom] 2012Photo: Tom Harris
Photo courtesy: White Cubepress release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

3/6

Theaster Gates

Press Release VOL.1

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

New works and projects with a Japanese connection
Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei features works that imagine, amalgamate and hybridize Black and Japanese
historical and cultural elements, including ceramics made in Tokoname, sculptural interventions inspired by
Chicago funk music and lounges, a sound installation featuring a church organ, works by late Edo-period
poet and ceramic artist Otagaki Rengetsu and new bodies of work anchored by Japanese incense, sakeand tea rituals.
“Black Library ” book lounge right in the gallery

An interactive and participatory library with shelves ﬁlling the gallery walls has been created for the exhibition,offering visitors the chance to browse a few thousand publications on Black art, history and culture.

Full program of events including music and workshops
A diverse program of events designed to showcase the breadth of Gates’ practice is planned for theduration of the exhibition including sonic and olfactory activations and an off-site installation at the former
Earthenware Pipe Factory (Maruri-Toukan ) in the city of Tokoname.

The Listening House
2022
Installation view: Aichi Triennale 2022
Photo: ToLoLo studio* Referential image

A Heavenly Chord
2022
Leslie speakers, Hammond B-3 Organ, soundDimensions variable
Photo: Jim Prinz Photographypress release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

4/6

Theaster Gates

Press Release VOL.1

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

WHAT IS “AFRO-MINGEI”?
“Afro-Mingei ” is the manifestation of a new creative ideology wherein Theaster Gates imagines theartistic possibilities of combining Black aesthetics and Japanese craft philosophies to envision hybridculture futures. It traces his long-established and enduring relationship with Japanese, Chinese andKorean ceramic histories, conceiving of an artistic and intellectual invitation that considers Black politicalmovements alongside Japanese craft resistance. In addition, “Afro-Mingei” also is a reﬂection on two very
important movements - the “ Black Is Beautiful ” Movementof the United States and the Mingei Movement of Japan –both of which used public spectacle, academic debate, andpropaganda as tools of self-empowerment when cultural
independence was under threat by external and dominant
forces of Modernity and Western assimilation.
For Gates, “Afro-Mingei” is a fiction yet a deep truth. As
the culmination of this project to date, staging a show in the
country that gave birth to the Mingei movement so inﬂuential
in Gates ’ art is an homage and testament to the ways that
culture proliferates in a country, in the world, and between
cultures.
Storefront Sign
2018
Neon
114.9 x 114.9 cm
Courtesy: White Cube
Photo: Theo Christelis

KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING “AFRO-MINGEI”
1. What is “Afro” ?
The prefix Afro - that more broadly means “African ” (as in Afro-Americans, for example ), refers to thehairstyle that gained popularity as a symbol of Black identity and empowerment during the years of the
Civil Rights Movement in the US.

2. Nameless craftsmen and neglected materials in Mingei
The term Mingei was coined by religious philosopher and art critic Yanagi Soetsu a.k.a. Yanagi Muneyoshi( 1889-1961 ) alongside like-minded associates such as potters Hamada Shoji and Kawai Kanjiro, andrefers to folk crafts produced by nameless artisans. Yanagi saw Mingei, born out of the tapestry of art,
philosophy and religion that comprises traditional Japanese culture, as harboring “a singular beauty absent
from conventional notions of art and aesthetics.” Mingei ﬁnds true beauty not in the output of individual
artists, but in works created in artisans ’ innocence, or items used by people as part of their day-to-day
routines.
press release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

5/6

Theaster Gates

Press Release VOL.1

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

3. Hybridity of “Afro ” and “Mingei ”
Gates ’ works in the exhibition translate ideologies of Blackness that emerged out of a collective
consciousness developed by African-Americans in resistance to, and as survival from the preexisting,often oppressive, American consciousness. Utilizing his predisposition to what can be called a ‘double
consciousness,’* Gates allows these objects to thrive in new cultural contexts where experimental binaries
can be reimagined through “Afro-Mingei.” Audaciously combining African craftworks and symbols of adeeply-layered Black American consciousness such as the Hammond B-3 organ - which is an allegory forthe spiritual and political refuge sought by the Black community during times of racial tension and often
used in Pentecostal and Baptist churches - with Japanese ceramics and ritual objects such as tea, incenseand sake wares, Gates attempts to honor these generational crafts and create new cultural value.
* The idea of ‘double consciousness ’ was first introduced by W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), an African-American intellect and civil rights
activist in his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903).

4. Multiple origins seen in his ceramic works
Over the years, Gates has presented ceramic works from multiple perspectives. An important early project
concerned “Yamaguchi Shoji,” a ﬁctional ceramicist who traveled from Japan to the US state of Mississippi.
The pieces by Yamaguchi, who married a Black woman and melded Japanese pottery and African-American
expression, were all creations of Gates himself. His other works of ceramic art show the inﬂuence of theenslaved potter David Drake (c.1800-1870s), American ceramic artist Peter Voulkos (1924-2002), andthe diverse history of Japanese ceramic art. Often products of this hybrid background, Gates’ pottery
pieces offer a vital medium for the interpretation of “Afro-Mingei.”

5. Collaboration and community
Gates’ community revitalization projects on Chicago’s South Side are meant to revive old buildings as ademonstration that there is life within forgotten spaces and to create new hubs where people can meet,
mingle and collaborate. Yanagi stated that in Mingei, “one may witness a world of true cooperation, ”
and also wrote that in most cases, this did not come about without the help of local people, and that“one cannot expect proper craft from a social structure in chaos.” * Gates’ projects, which could also be
described as social contribution through creativity, echo and resonate with this idea.
* Yanagi, Soetsu. Kogei no michi [The Way of Craft] (Tokyo: Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko, 2005), pp. 54-55.

The latest exhibition press images are available on our website for downloads:
https://tayori.com/f/theastergates-en/press release Press Inquiries: Mori Art Museum Public Relations Office [within Kyodo PR]

Tel: +81-(0)80-2340-8755 (Ms. Wada) E-mail: mam-pr@kyodo-pr.co.jp

6/6