ARTISTS
Hank Willis Thomas: Loverules
Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist and activist focused on themes relating to commodity, identity, media and popular culture. Experimenting with mixed media and mass-produced imagery, Thomas鈥� practice includes photography, sculpture, installation and more.
Thomas was trained in photography and employs both archival and contemporary imagery from popular culture to take on urgent questions: What is the role of art in civic life? How do advertising and visual culture create narratives that shape our notion of value in society? This exhibition covers 20 years (2002-22) of Thomas鈥檚 work and is drawn from the collection of the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation. The exhibition features some of the artist鈥檚 most iconic and well-known artworks across a range of media, investigating diverse themes.
LOVERULES also highlights several important series, including Branded and Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America. In Branded, Thomas explores and re-contextualizes the history of brand advertising and sponsorship through the iconography of sport. In Unbranded, Thomas digitally removes advertising punchlines and logos, with both series thereby highlighting the consistently dehumanizing strategies of corporate media, the commodification of African-American identity, and how dominant cultural tropes shape notions of race and race relations.
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Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist and activist focused on themes relating to commodity, identity, media and popular culture. Experimenting with mixed media and mass-produced imagery, Thomas鈥� practice includes photography, sculpture, installation and more.
Thomas was trained in photography and employs both archival and contemporary imagery from popular culture to take on urgent questions: What is the role of art in civic life? How do advertising and visual culture create narratives that shape our notion of value in society? This exhibition covers 20 years (2002-22) of Thomas鈥檚 work and is drawn from the collection of the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation. The exhibition features some of the artist鈥檚 most iconic and well-known artworks across a range of media, investigating diverse themes.
LOVERULES also highlights several important series, including Branded and Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America. In Branded, Thomas explores and re-contextualizes the history of brand advertising and sponsorship through the iconography of sport. In Unbranded, Thomas digitally removes advertising punchlines and logos, with both series thereby highlighting the consistently dehumanizing strategies of corporate media, the commodification of African-American identity, and how dominant cultural tropes shape notions of race and race relations.
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