Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture, often seeking out and utilizing recognizable icons from popular branding and marketing campaigns. In using icons and other nods to popular culture, he encourages the viewer to question commercial consumer representation and the racial stereotypes it perpetuates. A common practice in his artistic process, Thomas looks to the ways popular imagery informs how people perceive themselves and others around the world, comparing this practice to the one of a “visual cultural archaeologist.” A trained photographer, his work spans across many disciplines and media, and his public works always encourage a form of viewer participation and contribution.
His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad including the International Center of Photography, New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; Musée du quai Branly, Paris; Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Netherlands. Solo exhibitions of his work have been featured at SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, and the African American Museum, Philadelphia, PA, among others. Major group exhibitions of his work include the 2017 inaugural show at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa; P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Zacheta National Museum of Art, Poland; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, and the 2006 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, Orange County, CA.
Thomas’ work is included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; The Broad, Los Angeles, CA, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
His numerous collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males, In Search of The Truth (The Truth Booth), Writing on the Wall (a collaborative project with artist and activist Baz Dreisinger), and For Freedoms. Influenced by social history and the hard-fought, perennial battle for equality in all areas of his work, Thomas co-founded For Freedoms with artist Eric Gottesman in 2016 as a platform for creative civic engagement in America. Inspired by American artist Norman Rockwell’s paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (1941)—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—For Freedoms uses art to encourage and deepen public explorations of freedom in the 21st century. In 2017, For Freedoms was awarded the ICP Infinity Award for New Media and Online Platform. The Gun Violence Memorial Project—a collaboration between Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group, in partnership with Purpose Over Pain and Everytown For Gun Safety—is currently on view at the National Building Museum, Washington D.C. through September 25, 2022.
Thomas is a recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2018), Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (2017), Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), Aperture West Book Prize (2008), Renew Media Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation (2007), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award (2006). He is also a member of the Public Design Commission for the City of New York.
Thomas holds a B.F.A. from New York University, New York, NY (1998) and an M.A./M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2004). He received honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, ME in 2017.
In 2017, the artist unveiled two permanent public artworks: Love Over Rules in San Francisco, CA and All Power to All People in Opa Locka, FL. In 2019, he unveiled another major public artwork: Unity in Brooklyn, NY. Thomas’ first comprehensive survey Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… opened in the fall of 2019 at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, OR where it then traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, AR (February 8 – July 13, 2020). The exhibition’s final presentation was at Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, OH (September 4 – November 8, 2020).
Born 1976 in Plainfield, NJ. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
EDUCATION
2017
Ph.D., Honorary Doctor in Philosophy, Institute For Doctorial Studies in Visual Arts, Portland, ME
2004
M.F.A., Photography, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
M.A., Visual Criticism, California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA
1998
B.F.A., Photography and Africana Studies, New York University, New York, NY
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2021
Hank Willis Thomas: Another Justice: Divided We Stand, Kayne Griffin, Los Angeles, CA
Gun Violence Memorial Project in collaboration with MASS Design Group, National Building Museum, Washington, DC
2020
Hank Willis Thomas: Don’t Let Money Change You, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong
Hank Willis Thomas: An All Colored Cast, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
2019
The Writing on the Wall, in collaboration with Dr. Baz Dreisinger & MASS Design Group, High Line Art, New York, NY
Hank Willis Thomas: Exodusters, Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, NY
Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal…, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AR; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Hank Willis Thomas: Unbranded, ICA Miami, FL; Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL
2018
What We Ask Is Simple, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Unbranded, The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
Unbranded/Branded, The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
2017
The Beautiful Game, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK
Freedom Isn’t always Beautiful and Blind Memory, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
Unbranded: A Century of White Women, 1915 – 2015, York College Galleries, York, PA
2016
To Whom It May Concern, Jablonka Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Evidence of Things Not Seen, Kadist, San Francisco, CA
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, NC
Hank Willis Thomas: Black Righteous Space, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2015
Primary Sources, David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
The Truth is I See You, 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
…and only the people, Galerie Henrik Springmann, Berlin, Germany
History Doesn’t Laugh, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Question Bridge Black Males, DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL
2013
Hank Willis Thomas, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH
Wayfarer, Picture Windows Series, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Opp. Other People’s Property, Haverford College
2012
What Goes Without Saying, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
Hank Willis Thomas: Believe It, SCAD Galleries, La Galerie Pfriem, Lacoste.
2011
Strange Fruit, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Scouring the Earth for My Affinity, Samsøn Projects, Boston, MA
2010
Hank Willis Thomas, Galerie Anne De Villepoix, Paris, France
All Things Being Equal…, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2009
Hank Willis Thomas, Annarumma 404, Milan, Italy
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, CT
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
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
WAKE UP! Our Wake Up Call For Freedoms, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT
Life Altering: Selections from a Kansas City Collection, BU Art Galleries, Boston, MA
The New Black Aesthetic, The Caxton Building, Cleveland, OH
A Trillion Sunsets – a Century of Image Overload, ICP, New York, NY
Disrupting Anti-Blackness: Artists Voicing Truths, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
2021
Black American Portraits, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
The Protest and The Recupertion, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY
Afro-Atlantic Histories, The Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH), Houston, TX; Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Brazil
Congoville, Middelheimlaan Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
Intertwined, throughout Seattle, WA
Off The Record, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Promise, Witness, Remembrance, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, The New Museum, New York, NY
Art Finds a Way, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
2020
Sculpture, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Changes, Toledo Museum of Art, Toldeo, OH
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, Barbican, London, UK; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Barring Freedom, Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, UC Santa Cruz, CA; José Museum of Art, CA,; Shiva Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY
Sculpture, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
Pictures, Revisited, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Jacob Lawrence: An American Struggle, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (forthcoming)
Tell Me Your Story, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL
Person of interest, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE
Object Lessons, Edward Hopper House Museum, Nyack, NY
Migrations and Meaning(s), Curated by Deborah Willis, Ph.D., Meyerhoff Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2019
30 Americans, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA (forthcoming)
ACE: Art on Sports, Promises, and Selfhood, University Art Museum, University at Albany, Albany, NY
Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance, The Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY, August 16 - January 6, 2020
2018
ReSignifications: The Black Mediterranean, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
On The Inside Out, Monroe-Brown Gallery, Kalamazoo, MI
Nomadic Murals: Contemporary Tapestries and Carpets, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London, England
Sculpture Milwaukee 2018, Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI
Resist! The 1960s Protests, Photography, and Visual Legacy, Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium
The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL
Something to Say: Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
People Get Ready: Building a Contemporary Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC
2017
Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, New Orleans, LA
AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
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
Public Art in New York, Museum of the City of New York, NY
The Embedded Message: Quilting in Contemporary Art, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, VA
Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
Black Box: Kara Walker and Hank Willis Thomas, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
2016
Southern Accent, Nasher Museum of Art At Duke University, Durham, NC
For Freedoms, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
Reality of My Surroundings: The Contemporary Collection, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Winter 2015: Collected Works, The Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, Vancouver, Canada
Preface, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA
I See Myself In You, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Us Is Them, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH
March Madness, Fort Gansevoort, New York, NY
Black Pulp!, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
March Madness, Fort Gansevoort, New York, NY
The Truth Is I Hear You (A Project by The Cause Collective), Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
The Color Line: African American Artist and Segregation, Musee du quai Branly-Jacques Chiac, Paris, France
All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, SA
From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
Question Bridge: Black Males, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC and Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
2015
Art For Rights, Amnesty International, New Orleans, LA
Through the Eyes of Others, The ARC, Opa Locka, FL
Making Africa, A Continent of Contemporary Design, Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
Winter in America, The School – Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY
Necessary Force: Art in a Police State, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Alburquerque, NM
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
Diverse Works: Director’s Choice 1997-2015, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
ReSignifications, throughout Florence, Italy
Image-Objects, City Hall Park, New York NY
Manifest Justice, Pop Up Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
Remember Me, Michel Rein Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Visualizing Our Americana, Color Polemics, The Gateway Project, Newark, NJ
Repetition and Difference, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Making Histories, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Terminal: On Mortality and Beauty, Photo Center North West, Seattle, WA
RESPOND, Smack Mellon, New York, NY
American Scene Photography from the Martin Margulies Collection, NSU Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2014
Africa Now: Political Patterns, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Select Cuts & Alterations, Foley Gallery, New York, NY
The Photographer’s Playspace, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
SHAPESHIFTING: Contemporary Masculinities, The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, OH
Civil Rights: We have it in our power to begin the world over again, Void, Derry, Ireland
Americans in New York 3, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris, France
Drawn to Language, Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, NY
Historias Mezticas, Insituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brasil
The People’s Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, IL
Bench Marks, throughout Chicago, IL
Conjuring Capital, San Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Secondhand, Pier 24, San Francisco, CA
Black Eye, Walker St. gallery, New York, NY
NYC Makers, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
No Longer Empty presents: If You Build It, Sugar Hill Apartments, New York, NY
Giving Contours to Shadows, throughout Berlin, Germany
The Opening, Jack Shainman Gallery: The School, Kinderhook, NY
Warp & Woof, The Hole, New York, NY
Look At Me: Portraiture From Manet to the Present, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY
Bull City Summer, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
2013
About Face: Contemporary Portraiture, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Landscape into Abstraction, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Dis-semblance: Perceiving and Projecting Identity Today, 21c Cincinnati, OH
eMERGING: Visual Art and Music in a Post Hip-Hop Era, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY
How is the World?, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
United States, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
More American Photographs, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH
Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, El Museo del Barrio, Queens Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
More American Photographs, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco
2012
Contemporary Memories, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Attitudes, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
Beyond Beauty, Twig Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
What Do You Believe In, New York Photo Festival, 2012
Making History, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt Germany
Hard Targets, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
United States, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
The Sports Show, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota
2011
Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), Istanbul, Turkey
The Truth is I Am You, MoCADA and LMCC, Governors Island, NY
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
Posing Beauty, USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
The February Show, Ogilvy, New York, NY
Elizabeth Catlett: Stargazer, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL
In Context, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
T_XT_RT, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
In Search of the Truth (Truth Booth), Galway Arts Festival, Galway, Ireland (©ause Collective)
2010
Huckleberry Finn, Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA
Greater New York 2010, PS1, Queens, NY
Unfixed, Center for Contemporary Art, Dordrecht, Netherlands
Africa: See You See Me, Museu da Cidade Pavilhão Preto, Portugal
3rd World Festival of Black Arts and Culture, Dakar, Senegal
Progeny Two, Gantt Center, Charlotte, NC
Posing Beauty, Williams College of Art, Williamstown, MA
In Context, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
After 1968, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
Houston FotoFest Biennial, Houston, TX
CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada
An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area Part 2, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
Hard Targets, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH
Beg, Borrow, Steal, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
2009
The Black Atlantic, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano, Italy
1969, PS1, New York, NY
Unnatural Rubber, The Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA
The Moving Image, Orange County Museum of Art, Orange County, CA
ICP Triennial: Dress Codes, ICP, New York, NY
Posing Beauty, New York University, New York, NY
New York Photo Festival, Powerhouse Arena, Brooklyn, New York
Double Exposure, DePaul University Museum, Chicago, IL
SIGN/AGE: Fight the Power, Armand Bartos Fine Art, New York, NY
30 Americans: Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Family Collection, various venues
2008
30 Americans, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Ours: Democracy in the Age of Branding, The New School, New York, NY
Houston Collects: African American Art, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX
Unchained Legacy, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
After 1968, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Black Is, Black Ain't, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, IL
From Taboo to Icon: Africanist Turnabout, Ice Box Projects Space, Philadelphia, PA
We’re All in this together, Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA
I AM A MAN – Revisited, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, NY
Videocracy, Tina B. Prague Contemporary Arts Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI
Facing Race, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, OH
Double Exposure, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
2007
Ad | Agency, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA
Branded and on Display, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
For the Love of the Game, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Visual Alchemy, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
Negotiating Identities in Africa and the African Diaspora, Gettysburg College, PA
Reasons to Riot, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
Crossing the Line, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL
2006
The California Biennial, The Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Kapital, Kent Gallery, New York, NY
The Black Alphabet, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Metro Pictures, The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami
Black Panther Rank and File, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Emerging Artists Fellowship Exhibition, Socrates Sculpture Park, NY
The Whole World is Rotten, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
Double Exposure, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
2005
Frequency, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Day Labor, MoMA P.S.1, New York, NY
Bay Area Now 4, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Remnants, Relics, Jamaica Center for Art & Learning, New York, NY
Propeller, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, African-American Museum in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Maximum Flavor, ACA Gallery, Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA
2004
Salad Days, Artists Space, New York, NY
Jamaica Flux, Jamaica Center for Art and Learning, New York, NY
2003
Missing Person’s, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
POPULAR tm, Works Gallery, San Jose, CA
MFA Thesis Exhibition, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
25 Under 25: American Photographers, Gulf & Western Gallery, New York, NY
Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, The Leica Gallery, New York, NY
2002
Murphy & Cadagon Awards Exhibition, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2001
Moments in Love, Intimacy and Kinship, Grand Central Station, New York, NY
The Legacy of Gordon Parks, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
Latent Discoveries, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
2000
Reflections In Black, Smithsonian Institution, Arts & Industries Building, Washington, DC
Fuzzy Logic, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999
Speak to my Heart, Smithsonian Institution, The Anacostia Museum, Washington, DC
1994
Images & Inspirations, National Museum of American History, Washington, DC
SELECTED PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
2020
The Embrace (forthcoming), Boston King Memorial, Boston, MA
Title TK (forthcoming), Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
2019
Unity, Percent for Art, Tillary Street, Brooklyn, NY
Love Rules, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
The Writing on the Wall, in collaboration with Dr. Baz Dreisinger & MASS Design Group, High Line Art, New York, NY
2018
All Power To All People, Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Pershing County, NV
Raise Up, Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, Montgomery, AL
In Memoriam: Commemorative Works By Contemporary Artists, Art Gallery, University of St. Joseph, West Hartford, CT
2017
Frieze Sculpture Park with Ben Brown Fine Arts, Regent’s Park, London, UK
In Search of the Truth (Truth Booth), Sydney, Australia (©ause Collective)
All Power to All People, Mural Arts Philadelphia: Monument Lab, Philadelphia, PA
All Power to All People Opa Locka Community Development Corporation , Opa Locka, FL
Love Over Rules, Sites Unseen, San Francisco, CA
2016
For Freedoms, throughout the US
2015
Annin Arts, London, England
Percent for Art, Brooklyn Bridge Gateway Project, Brooklyn, NY
Public Art Program for the District of Columbia, Hearst Elementary School, Washington D.C
2014
A person is more important than anything else, The Year of James Baldwin, New York Live Arts, New York, NY
2013
In Search of the Truth (Truth Booth), throughout Afghanistan (©ause Collective)
The Long March, Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, Birmingham, AL
Untitled, from the Wayfarer Series, International Center for Photography, New York, NY
2012
The Truth Booth, Look3 Photo Festival, Charlottesville, VA
I See it Now, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA (©ause Collective)
2011
Coming to California, Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA (©ause Collective)
In Search of the Truth (Truth Booth), Galway Arts Festival, Galway, Ireland (©ause Collective)
2010
CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada (©ause Collective)
2007
The Truth is I Am You, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (©ause Collective)
Along the Way, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA (©ause Collective)
CURATED EXHIBITIONS
2019
A Thousand Plateaus, curated with Daphne Takahashi, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018
Shadow Stories and Matters of Time, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
2017
… and the people, Maruani Mercier Gallery, Knokke, Belgium
For Freedoms, Aperture, New York, NY
2016
In Context: Africans in America, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
For Freedoms, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
SOLASTALGIA, CUE Foundation, New York, NY
Archive Collective: South Kensington 19122, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA
2015
Young, Gifted and Black, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2014
Social in Practice: The Art of Collaboration, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY
2012
Question Bridge Black Males, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2011
The Black Portrait, curated with Natasha Logan, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Off Color 1, curated with Kalia Brooks, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY
Off Color 2, curated with Kalia Brooks, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2007
Off Color, curated with Kalia Brooks, Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami, FL
SCREENINGS / FILM FESTIVALS
2015
A person is more important than anything else, Queer Lisbao 19, Lisbon, Portugal
2014
We Are Not Yet Free, Tribeca Film Institute: The Power of Words, Cape Town, South Africa
Am I Going Too Fast?, Sundance Film Festival: Short Film Challenge, US and London
2013
Films4Peace, Video Slink Uganda
Question Bridge Black Males, BlackStar Film Festival
2012
Question Bridge Black Males, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Question Bridge Black Males, Los Angeles Film Festival (special selection)
Question Bridge Black Males, Sheffield Doc Fest: Innovation Official Selection
Question Bridge Black Males, Sundance Film Festival: New Frontiers Category
2008
Along the Way (©ause Collective), Sundance Film Festival: New Frontiers Category
2007
Winter in America, Scanners: New York International Video Festival
Along the Way (©ause Collective), Illuminated Corridor: The Great Wall of Oakland
RESIDENCIES AND AWARDS
2018
Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship, Gordon Parks Foundation, New York, NY
Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY
2017
Soros Equality Fellowship, Open Society Foundations, New York, NY
Infinity Award: New Media and Online Platform (For Freedoms), International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Laboratory For Freedoms, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY
Zeitz MOCAA Artist-in-Residence, Segera, Kenya
Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, Institute For Doctoral Studies in Visual Arts, Portland, ME
Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Arts, Baltimore, MD
2016
Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, New York, NY
2015
Infinity Award: New Media (Question Bridge: Black Males), International Center of Photography, New York, NY
2014
Grant Honoree, Open Society Institute
2013
Short Film Challenge, Sundance Film Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Artist-in-Residence, Nirox, Johannesburg, South Africa
Artist-in-Residence, Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY
2012
Artist Honoree, Groundswell, New York, NY
Artist in Residence, Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY
Fellow, Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Fellowship New Media, Tribeca Film Institute, New York, NY
2011
Artist-in-Residence, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
W. E. B. DuBois Institute Resident Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
CEC Artslink in collaboration with Istanbul Biennial
2010
SF Foundation in collaboration with C@use Collective
2009
Artist-in-Residence, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Visiting Artist, Lightborne, Cincinnati, OH
Workshop, Brandywine, Philadelphia, PA
2008
LEF Foundation Grant, San Francisco, CA
Artist-in-Residence, Acadia Summer Arts Program, Desert Island, MN
2007
Media Arts Fellowship, Renew Media (Rockefeller Foundation), New York, NY
Grant Honoree, Investing in Artists, Center for Cultural Innovation, San Francisco, CA
Fund for Art and Dialogue, Artadia, New York, NY
Travel Grant, Art Matters, New York, NY
Artist-in-Residence, Acadia Summer Arts Program, Desert Island, MN
Artist-in-Residence, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, France
Artist-in-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2006
Grant Honoree, LEF Foundation, CA
Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY
Emerging Artists Fellow, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
Artist-in-Residence, Art Omi, Omi, NY
Artist-in-Residence, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2005
Artist-in-Residence, Light Work, Syracuse, NY
Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
2003
Barclay Simpson Award, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Albright- Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, FL
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
The Broad, Los Angeles, CA
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Culture Corps, New York, NY
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH
The Dean Collection, New York, NY
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Eileen and Peter Norton Family Collection, Santa Monica, CA
Frac Aquaitaine, Bordeaux, France
Fundação Sindika Dokolo Collection, Luanda, Angola
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France
Martin Margulies Collection, Miami, FL
Middlebury College Museum of Art, VT
Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, MI
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
New Orleans Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, FL
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
Opa-locka Art, Opa-locka, FL
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
The Philip & Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Collegeville, PA
Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
San Francisco Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah GA
Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE
Sir Elton John Collection, Atlanta, GA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Ulrich Museum, Wichita, KS
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
21C Museum, Louisville, KY