Hank Willis Thomas

Hank Willis Thomas
Born (1976-03-17) March 17, 1976
Plainfield, New Jersey
Nationality American
Alma mater MFA/MA California College of the Arts,
BFA Tisch School of the Arts

Hank Willis Thomas (born March 17, 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey) is a conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad including, the International Center of Photography, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Musée du quai Branly, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Thomas’ work is in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., among others. His collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males, In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth), and For Freedoms, which Thomas co-founded in 2016 as the first artist-run super PAC. For Freedoms was recently awarded the 2017 ICP Infinity Award for New Media and Online Platform. Thomas is also the recipient of the 2017 Soros Equality Fellowship. Current and upcoming exhibitions include Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp in New Orleans and Freedom Isn’t Always Beautiful at Savannah College of Art and Design Museum. Thomas is a member of the Public Design Commission for the city of New York. He received a BFA in Photography and Africana studies from New York University and a MFA/MA in Photography and Visual Criticism from the California College of Arts. He has also received honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute of Art and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. Thomas lives and works in New York City.

Education

Thomas received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography and a Master of Arts in Visual Criticism from California College of the Arts (CCA) in 2004.[1] He also received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Africana Studies from New York University (NYU), Tisch School of the Arts in 1998.[1]

Career

Hank Thomas is the winner of the first ever Aperture West Book Prize for his monograph Pitch Blackness (November, 2008). His work has been featured in other publications including Reflections in Black (Norton, 2000), and the exhibitions along with accompanying publications 25 under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers (CDS, 2003), and 30 Americans (RFC, 2008).[2]

Thomas’ work is in numerous public collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Museum of Fine Art in Houston. His collaborative projects have been featured at the Sundance Film Festival and installed publicly at the Oakland International Airport, The Oakland Museum of California and the University of California, San Francisco. Recent exhibitions include Dress Codes: The International Center for Photography’s Triennial of Photography and Video, Greater New York at P.S. 1/MoMa, Contact Toronto Photography Festival and Houston Fotofest.

Thomas explores the representation of the African-American male body in visual culture in his B(r)anded Series.[3][4] Writing in The Guardian, critic Arwa Mahdawi observed: "Thomas’s work 'unbrands' advertising: stripping away the commercial context, and leaving the exposed image to speak for itself."[5] His two screenprints of 2013, And I Can't Run and Blow the Man Down, express the erasure of past injustices to the black male body by printing photographs of humiliations or executions of black men on retro-reflective vinyl (commonly used for street signs), rendering them invisible except under flash photography.[6]

Thomas has a permanent installation at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The piece, titled Rise Up, depicts a cement wall with statues of black heads and bodies emerging from the top of the wall whose arms are raised in surrender. The piece comments on the incidents of police violence and police brutality that are prevalent in current American society.[7]

Thomas is working on the long-term and global public art project "In Search of the Truth". Also known as The Truth Booth it is in collaboration with Ryan Alexiev, Jim Ricks, and Will Sylvester, all members of Cause Collective.[8][9]. The New York Times writes: "The “Truth Booth,” [is] a roving, inflatable creation by a group of artists calling itself the Cause Collective. The booth, in the shape of a cartoon word bubble with “TRUTH” in bold letters on its side, serves as a video confessional. Visitors are asked to sit inside and finish the politically and metaphysically loaded sentence that begins, “The truth is …”"[10]. To date, the project has travelled Ireland, Afghanistan, South Africa, Australia, and the United States.

Thomas has acted as a visiting professor at CCA and in the MFA programs at Maryland Institute College of Art and ICP/Bard and has lectured at Yale University, Princeton University, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

He received a new media fellowship through the Tribeca Film Institute and was an artist in residence at Johns Hopkins University.[2] He is currently a DuBois Institute Fellow at Harvard University.

Installation at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama

Controversy

In 2018, Thomas was accused of plagiarism by South African photographer Graeme Williams [11]. A photograph that Williams took in 1990 of black children in the foreground and white policemen in the background was modified by Thomas, removing colour from the background. The photograph was exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Fair, with an asking price of USD36000, without attribution or mention of Williams. Willis defended himself saying that what he had done was "akin to sampling, remixing".

Family

Thomas's mother, Deborah Willis, Ph.D., is an art photographer and an NYU professor. His father, also Hank Thomas, is a jazz musician, film producer, real estate developer and stock broker. Thomas is married to Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Awards

2018

2017

  • Soros Equality Fellowship, Open Society Foundations
  • AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize
  • Infinity Award: New Media and Online Platform, International Center of Photography

2015

  • Infinity Award: New Media, International Center of Photography

Permanent installation

Selected exhibitions

Solo / two-person

2018

  • Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
  • Black Righteous Space, University at Albany University Art Museum, Albany, NY
  • Branded/Unbranded, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
  • What We Ask Is Simple, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
  • Unbranded, The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL

2017

  • Ads Imitate Life, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town
  • Flying Geese, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
  • The Beautiful Game, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK
  • Freedom Isn't Always Beautiful and Blind Memory, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Geogia
  • Unbranded: A Century of White Women, 1915 - 2015, York College Galleries, York, Pennsylvania
  • Hank Willis Thomas: Black Righteous Space, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2016

  • To Whom It May Concern, Jablonka Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
  • Evidence of Things Not Seen, Kadist, San Francisco, California
  • Hank Willis Thomas: I Am A Man, New City Arts Initiative, Charlottesville, VA
  • Unbranded: A Century of White Women, 1915 - 2015, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina

2015

  • Primary Sources, David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
  • The Truth is I See You, PublicArtFund, Metrotech, Brooklyn, New York
  • In The Box: Hank Willis Thomas, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
  • Unbranded: A Century of White Women 1915-2015', Jack Shainmain Gallery, New York NY

2014

2013

2012

  • What Goes Without Saying, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York
  • Hank Willis Thomas: Believe It, SCAD Galleries, La Galerie Pfriem, Lacoste

2011

  • Strange Fruit, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Scouring the Earth for My Affinity, Samson Projects, Boston, Massachusetts

2010

  • Hank Willis Thomas, Galerie Anne De Villepoix, Paris, France
  • All Things Being Equal..., Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009

  • Hank Willis Thomas, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Light Text, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, KS
  • Hank Willis Thomas, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
  • Digging Deeper, in collaboration with Willie Cole, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
  • About Time, Galway – 126, Galway, Ireland
  • Black is Beautiful, Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • Visionary Delusions, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto, Canada
  • Pitch Blackness, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

2008

  • Hank Willis Thomas, The Fabric Workshop and Museum Storefront, Philadelphia, PA
  • Winter In America, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA

2006

  • B®ANDED, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
  • Unbranded, Lisa Dent Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2005

  • Bearing Witness, African American Museum in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

2004

  • The Trade Dress: Value Judgments, Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami, FL

Group

2018

  • Michael Jackson: On The Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
  • Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil
  • RESIST! The 1960s Protest Movements, Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels
  • ReSignifications: The Black Mediterranean, Zisa Zona Arti Contemporanee, Palermo, Italy
  • Harbour Arts Sculpture Park, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China
  • HYPER-REAL, The Arts Club, London UK
  • Seeing Now, 21C Museum Nashville, KY
  • Reclamation! Pan-African Works from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Taubman Museum, Roanoke, VA
  • The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL

2017

  • Posing Beauty in African American Culture, Snap! Gallery, Orlando, FL
  • For Freedoms, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
  • The Past is Present, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
  • Double Take, SKARSTEDT, London, United Kingdom
  • Third Space / Shifting Conversations About Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
  • AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
  • All Things Being Equal..., Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art, Cape Town, South Africa
  • Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, New Orleans, Louisiana

2016

  • Southern Accent, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
  • The Truth is I Hear You (A Project by The Cause Collective), Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
  • The Color Line: African American Artist and Segregation, Musee du quai Branly-Jacques Chiac, Paris, France
  • Preface, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA
  • I See Myself In You, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
  • All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
  • Question Bridge: Black Males, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington D.C. and Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
  • From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA

2015

  • Making Africa, A Continent of Contemporary Design, Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
  • Winter in America, The School – Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY
  • Black Like Who?, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
  • Aperture Photographs, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
  • Salon Style, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
  • Image-Objects, Public Art Fund, City Hall Park, New York, New York
  • Remember Me, Michel Rein Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
  • Repetition and Difference, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

2014

  • Africa Now: Political Patterns, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
  • The Photographer’s Playspace, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
  • Americans in New York 3, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris, France
  • The People’s Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, IL
  • Conjuring Capital, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • Secondhand, Pier 24, San Francisco, CA
  • NYC Makers, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
  • Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
  • Historias Mezticas, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brasil

2013

  • About Face: Contemporary Portraiture, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
  • Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, Studio Museum in Harlem

2012

  • Contemporary Memories, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
  • Making History, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt Germany
  • Hard Targets, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

2011

  • Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), Istanbul, Turkey
  • The Bearden Project, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
  • More American Photographs, Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA
  • Commercial Break, Venice Biennial, Italy
  • West End, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
  • Becoming, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC
  • In Context, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2010

  • Huckleberry Finn, Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA
  • Africa: See You See Me, Museu da Cidade Pavilhão Preto, Portugal
  • Greater New York 2010, PS1, Queens, New York
  • 3rd World Festival of Black Arts ad Culture, Dakar, Senegal
  • CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada
  • In Context, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Houston FotoFest Biennial, Houston, TX

2009

  • 1969, PS1, New York, New York
  • ICP Triennial: Dress Codes, ICP, New York, New York
  • 30 Americans: Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Family Collection, various venues

2008

Bibliography

  • Willis, Deborah, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kalia Brooks. Progeny: Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas. New York: Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 2009. ISBN 978-1-884919-23-7
  • Thomas, Hank Willis, René De Guzman, and Robin D G Kelley. Pitch Blackness. New York: Aperture, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59711-072-3
  • Harney, Elizabeth, editor. Flava: Wedge Curatorial Projects 1997-2007. Toronto: Wedge Curatorial Projects, 2008. Page 131. ISBN 978-0-9783370-0-1
  • Rhoden, William C. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. Page 182. ISBN 0-609-60120-2
  • Thomas, Hank Willis, Kambui Olujimi, and Carla Williams. Winter in America. San Francisco: 81 Press, 2006. ISBN 0-9777336-0-2
  • Armstrong, Elizabeth, Rita Gonzalez, and Karen Moss. California Biennial 2006. Newport Beach, California: Orange County Museum of Art, 2006. Pages 152-5. ISBN 0-917493-42-7
  • Murray, D. C. "Hank Willis Thomas at Lisa Dent." Art in America. December 2006: p. 165.
  • Dawsey, Jill. "Hank Willis Thomas." Artforum.com, March 2006.
  • Golden, Thelma, and Christine Y. Kim. Frequency. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 2005. Pages 7, 88-89. ISBN 0-942949-30-7
  • Bing, Alison. "Image Consciousness." SFGate.com, 28 October 2004: p. 78.
  • Willis, Deborah. Black: a Celebration of a Culture. Irvington, New York: Hylas Publishing, 2004. Pages 221, 230, 290. ISBN 1-59258-051-3
  • Addo, Ping-Ann. Pieces of Cloth, Pieces of Culture: Tapa from Tonga & the Pacific Islands. Oakland, California: Center for Art and Public Life, California College of the Arts, 2004.
  • Hill, Iris Tillman. 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers. Brooklyn, New York: powerHouse Books in association with the Center for Documentary Studies, 2003. ISBN 1-57687-192-4
  • Gore, Al, and Tipper Gore. The Spirit of Family. New York: Henry Holt, 2002. Pages 14–5. ISBN 0-8050-6894-5
  • M.I.L.K. Project. Friendship: a Celebration of Humanity. New York, New York: Morrow, 2001. ISBN 0-06-620970-6
  • Willis, Deborah. Reflections in Black: a History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. Pages 257-8, 277. ISBN 0-393-04880-2
  • Carroll, Rebecca. Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1997. Cover. ISBN 0-517-88497-6
  • Cottman, Michael H, Deborah Willis, and Linda Tarrant-Reid. The Family of Black America. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996. Pages 122-6. ISBN 0-517-88822-X
  • Cottman, Michael H, and Deborah Willis. Million Man March. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1995. Pages 13, 39, 81. ISBN 0-517-88763-0

References

  1. 1 2 "Hank Willis Thomas". Beth Schiffer Creative Darkroom. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  2. 1 2 http://www.hankwillisthomas.com
  3. ↑ Dutra, Robyn. "The New Regime: Hank Willis Thomas." Black Book, December 4, 2008. Accessed August 4, 2009.
  4. ↑ Davis, Beandrea. "The Elusive Concept of Blackness." Colorlines, November/December 2007. Accessed August 4, 2009.
  5. ↑ Mahdawi, Arwa. "The truth about adverts: selling the White Woman™", The Guardian, April 29, 2015
  6. ↑ Erdos, Elleree. "Hank Willis Thomas: Now You See It, Now You Don't," Art in Print Vol. 4 No. 2 (July-August 2014). For this work in the broader context of UV-reflective media and black radicalism, see Ensminger, David. "Black Light Panthers: The Politics of Fluorescence," Art in Print Vol. 5 No. 2 (July-August 2015).
  7. ↑ "A New National Memorial To Victims Of Lynching - 1A". 1A. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
  8. ↑ http://www.causecollective.com/projects/httpwww-insearchofthetruth-net/
  9. ↑ http://insearchofthetruth.net/
  10. ↑ Randy Kennedy. Political Art in a Fractious Election Year "The New York Times", July 17, 2016
  11. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/13/graeme-williams-hank-willis-thomas-photograph
  12. ↑ Wright, Barnett (April 19, 2018). "What's inside Montgomery's national peace and slave memorial museum opening April 26". Birmingham Times. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
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