Theaster Gates at Mori Art Museum

Opening this spring, Theaster Gates’s exhibition at Mori Art Museum offers a comprehensive survey of Gates’s diverse oeuvre. With a focus on sculpture, ceramics, architecture and performance, the exhibition stands as the largest presentation of the artist’s works in the region to date.

Highlighting a curated selection of Gates’s most notable projects, the exhibition also features new works, some of which have close connections to Japan. Rooted in cultural hybridity, Gates’s philosophy of ‘Afro-Mingei’ combines elements of Japanese Mingei folk art with themes of Black culture and identity.

Speaking of the Mingei movement, Gates has said, ‘For more than 20 years, the Mingei Movement has been an important guidepost for me in understanding the mechanics of celebration associated with the beauty that a people make. The Mingei Movement, like the Black Power Movement of the United 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 of culture. Afro-Mingei is an attempt to marry the most significant movements of my artistic journey.’