Exhibitions

2022

Hawaii Triennial, Hawaii Contemporary

From Moment to Movement: Picturing Protest in the Kramlich Collection, Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California-Davis, California

City, White Cube Off-Site, White Cube West Palm Beach

This Tender Fragile Thing, The School, Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, New York

China Cabinet, Prada Rhong Zhai, Shanghai (solo)

How to Sell Hardware, GRAY Warehouse, Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago (solo)

Oh, The Wind Oh, The Wind, White Cube Mason’s Yard, London (solo)

Theaster Gates: Slight Intervention #5, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (solo)

Theaster Gates: A Clay Sermon, Whitechapel Gallery, London (solo)

Lost and Looking, Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, IN, USA

Promise, Witness, Remembrance, Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

STOP Painting: An exhibition by Peter Fischli, Fondazione Prada, Venice

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas

Social Works, Gagosian Gallery, New York

Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, New Museum, New York

Correspondence: Off-site Project Part Three, White Cube Off-Site, White Cube Aspen, Colorado

Earthbound: Contemporary Landscape from the Roberts Institute of Art, Sheffield Museums, Millennium Gallery

Crumbling Sets. An exhibition curated by Ragnar Kjartansson, The V-A-C Foundation, Moscow

Visions of a Shared Humanity, Curated by Franklin Sirmans, Art Gallery New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

The Flames: The Age of Ceramics, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris

2021

The Narrow Gate of the Here-and-Now: Protest and Conflict, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

Blanc Sur Blanc, Gagosian Paris

American Pastoral, Gagosian Britannia Street, London

Encounter, K11 Musea X White Cube, K11 Musea, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Ubunto: Five Rooms from the Harry David Collection, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

Future Histories: Theaster Gates and Cauleen Smith, SFMoMA, San Francisco

Transparent Things, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London

Black Vessel, Gagosian New York (solo)

Black Image Corporation, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, USA (solo)

Amalgam, Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom (solo)

2020

Breathing, Perez Art Museum, Miami (solo)

Theaster Gates, Jaume Plensa and Jim Dine, Parrish Art Museum, Watermill, NY

Facsimile Cabinet of Women Origin Stories, Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine (solo)

Amalgam, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (solo)

Every Circle Needs a Square, Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago (solo)

Assembly Hall, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (solo)

Line Drawing for Shirt and Cloak, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (solo)

Afro-Mingei, White Cube Mason’s Yard, London (solo)

Black Image Corporation, PRADA Mode, 180 The Strand, London (solo)

Black Madonna, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (solo)

The Source, Carmignac Foundation, Porquerolles Island, France

Fundacion Banco Santander, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain

Continuing Abstraction, Gagosian, Basel, Switzerland

Mask in Present-Day Art, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Switzerland

…and other such stories, Chicago Architectural Biennial, Chicago

2019

Streams of Consciousness, Bamako Biennial, Bamako, Mali

Black Chapel, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (solo)

Travellers: Stepping into the Unknown, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

Remembering Tomorrow, White Cube, Hong Kong

Memory Palace, White Cube, London

New Materialism, Kunsthalle Bonniers, Stockholm

Black Madonna, Sprengel Museum, Hannover (solo)

Black Madonna, Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (solo)

2018

The Black Image Corporation, Fondazione Prada, Milan (solo)

MONUMENTality, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

In the Tower, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (solo)

2017

L’emozione dei COLORI nell’arte, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy

Moscow Biennale, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Faire Avec El Anatsui, Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi, Venice

Black Archive, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (solo)

True Value, Fondazione Prada, Milan (solo)

2016

Heavy Sketches, Richard Grey Gallery, Chicago (solo)

How to Build a House Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (solo)

2015

Sanctum, Situations, Bristol, UK (solo)

Freedom of Assembly, White Cube, London (solo)

Prima Materia, Punta della Dogana, Venice Italy

Transforming the Known: Works from The Bert Kreuk Collection, Gemeente Museum, The Hague Germany

Sculpture in the Close, Jesus College, Cambridge UK

To Make the Thing that Makes the Things, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia USA (solo)

Art Basel Unlimited 2013, Basel

Labor and Wait, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara USA

The Spirit of Utopia, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London UK

2013

Accumulated Effects of Migration, Kavi Gupta, Chicago (solo)

13th Ballad, MCA Chicago, Chicago USA (solo)

My Labor Is My Protest, White Cube, London UK (solo)

Beyond Beauty, TWIG Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Houston, TX USA

40 Under 40, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. USA

Feast: Radical Hospitality and Contemporary Art, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL USA

Soul Manufacturing Corporation, Locust Projects, Miami USA (solo)

Storytelling as Craft; Chapter One, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, Kentucky USA

IN/SITU, EXPO CHICAGO, Chicago USA

The Sound of Painting, Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, Turin Italy

2012

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, CAMH, Houston TX USA

12 Ballads for Huguenot House, Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany

Beyond Beauty, Twig Gallery, Brussels

2011

Social Structures, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Sun Valley, ID USA

The North Wind and the Sun, Diverseworks, Houston, TX USA

Instruments of Resurrection, Roots & Culture, Chicago, IL USA

Theaster Gates: The Listening Room, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle USA (solo)

An Epitaph for Civil Rights, LA MOCA, Los Angeles, CA USA (solo)

An Epitaph for Civil Rights and Other Domesticated Structures, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Whitney Biennial 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY USA

Hand+Made Contemporary: Just a Closer Walk With Thee, Toward a Legendary Black Clay Superhero, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX USA

Dry Bones and Other Parables From the North, Brunno David Gallery and the Pulitzer Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO USA (solo)

2010

To Speculate Darkly: Theaster Gates and Dave, the Slave Potter, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee WI USA (solo)

Grain of Emptiness: Buddhism Inspired Contemporary Art, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY USA

2009

Holiness in Three Parts, Boots Contemporary Art Space, St. Louis, MO USA (solo)

On Another Note: Extractions from the Chicago Jazz Archive Collection, DOVA Temporary, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Temple Exercises, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Erogenous Wonder, An Installation, Salvage One, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Symposium on Contemporary Painting, Performance, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL USA (solo)

Black Monks of Mississippi, Performance, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL USA

Holiness in 3 Parts, Performance, Boots Contemporary Gallery, St. Louis, MO USA

Black Monks and the Gospel of Black, Performance, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Nada Fair, Miami Basel, Shoe Shine Stands and other archetypal structures of Blackness, Miami, FL USA

Representations Series, Talking Series concentrated on the concerns and thoughts of contemporary artists of color, in partnership with the Experimental Station and Illinois Humanities Council, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Dinner Intervention, Culture Community #1 meets Culture Community #2, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Yamaguchi in Residence, Experimental Station, one year, ongoing lifestyle performance, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Black Monks of Mississippi, If You See Jesus Tell Him Where I Am, Performance, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL USA

Contemporary Response to the Plantation Cabinet, circa 1782, Chipstone Foundation Estate, Milwaukee, WI USA

Tea Shacks, Collard Greens and the Preservation of Soul, Center for the Proliferation of Afro- Asian Artifacts, Chicago, IL USA

2008

Branded Alongside the Cabinet of Curiosities, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI USA

Black Monks and the Gospel of Black, Performance. Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

2007

Artists Connect, Performance Lecture, 16th Century Japanese Aesthetics, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Uprising, Voice, Violin and Cello, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Yamaguchi Institute, Plate Convergence, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL Recreation of the Candy “Stow,” Acquisition and renovation of a small South Side commercial building for dinner interventions; recycled materials, local labor, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Life After Qualls, African American Artists Respond to the works of Michael Qualls. Performance and sculpture at South Side Community Arts Center, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Un-housed. Gentrification and the constant need for Space, Architecture and design conference, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Storied Toy: The Emotional and Imaginative Relationship Between a Boy and His Toys (plus a few other things), with Professor Mitch Squires, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA USA

Facing Fuji: 10 Sculptors in Japan, Tokoname Museum of Ceramic History, Tokoname, Japan

2005

Rachmaninov and the Slave Spiritual, Piano, Violin and Voice, Ames, IA USA (solo)

The American Negro; Too good to be True, St. George Cathedral, Capetown, South Africa (solo)

People of the Mud, An exhibition of 15 ceramic artists, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL USA (solo)

Mississippi Houses, Inax Ceramic Museum, Tokoname, Japan (solo)

Theaster Gates, Yakimono Ceramics Exhibition, Tokoname, Japan (solo)