Theaster Gates

I want to spend my time between the creation of ideas and the creation of things.

— Theaster Gates

Modernism was influenced by what they call a primativist ethic.

— Theaster Gates

It's not really about the material. It's about our capacity to shape things.

— Theaster Gates

I believe that beauty is a basic service.

— Theaster Gates

All kinds of performance practices have a certain register of power or solemnity.

— Theaster Gates

I have the willingness to think fully about where opportunities are and where they live.

— Theaster Gates

It's really exciting to know that people want to use the house as a house and want to live there although it…

— Theaster Gates

Sometimes the creating that we do is creating a platform that allows other creative people to pitch in.

— Theaster Gates

Everything is raw material to me. Land is raw material... I take one form and transform it into other forms.

— Theaster Gates

There were a series of moments when I decided that art was important, and it was an important vehicle for me to…

— Theaster Gates

I actually no longer use 'art' as the framing device. I think I'm just kind of practicing things, practicing life, practicing creation.

— Theaster Gates

I think I'm passionately allowing myself to be influenced by the things that are around me.

— Theaster Gates

What I think museums do very well is that they say to a public, "We have some stuff that's worth looking at."

— Theaster Gates

I think I'm a full-time artist, a full-time urban planner, and a full-time preacher with an aspiration of no longer needing any…

— Theaster Gates

If we imagine that the only right that we have is to make commodifiable objects, then we limit our practice, and we…

— Theaster Gates

The reality in the neighborhood that I live in is: if I don't constantly reconcile what I have against what other people…

— Theaster Gates

The reason artists want to have works in museums is that we want our works to be seen by as many people…

— Theaster Gates

My first experience with the creative was mopping tar. If you let the tar sit, it can get cold pretty quickly. And…

— Theaster Gates

I'm not a preacher, but I preach. I'm not a Buddhist, but I chant. I'm not race theorist, but I have questions…

— Theaster Gates

I sometimes am challenged to imagine where the timbre of art should be. Should it be about objects that point to this…

— Theaster Gates

The fact that the work is affirmed by the Museum of Contemporary Art I think sends continued signals that this is worth…

— Theaster Gates