Theaster Gates, 12th winner of the Frederick Kiesler Prize, receives his award in Vienna

In September 2021, a distinguished international jury selected Theaster Gates as the 12th winner of the Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts. The award ceremony, which was postponed from autumn 2021, was presented by Vienna’s Executive City Councillor for Cultural Affairs, Veronica Kaup-Hasler last week. ‘I am delighted that the prize named after the visionary architect Frederick Kiesler is being awarded to an artist who uses his diverse artistic practice to push for essential urban and social change,’ stated Kaup-Hausler. President of the Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Elke Delugan-Meissl, described Gates’s award as ‘a more than logical choice, given the way his work combines aesthetic values with a social agenda.’ Gates thanked all who have supported his practice ‘both within museums and on the street’. ‘Projects that consider people as much as they consider the implications of the built form deserve merit’, he said. ‘I’m so grateful to be part of this precedent’.