White Cube is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Theaster Gates. Gates’ practice is wide-ranging and polysemous, attempting to bridge the gap between art and life and catalyse social and economic change through direct artistic agency. For this exhibition, entitled ‘Freedom of Assembly’, Gates explores the theme of assembly in its widest sense, enmeshing ideas of an autonomous art object with notions of individual freedom and the empowerment of place. In particular, Gates refers to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which protects freedom of speech, the right to peaceably assemble, and the free exercise of religion.
‘Freedom of Assembly’ includes several new series of sculptures, a large-scale presentation of tar paintings and a body of work that foregrounds, for the first time, Gates’ long-term involvement with clay production. Notions of assembly become evident in works that draw on personal memory, politics, and the history and resonance of material objects within our culture.