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Theaster GatesWhite Cube Seoul
Theaster Gates: African Still Life
티에스터 게이츠: 아프리카 정물들
About the exhibition
A pair of custom Margiela Tabi roller skates, a memorial flag, an antique brass shoe-shine stand and a scholar's stone come together in African Still Life #4 (2026). A scholar's stone is a rock that Chinese literati kept for contemplation. White Cube calls this Theaster Gates's first solo exhibition in South Korea.
A still life is usually an arranged group of objects. Gates stretches the term and calls the African still life "a kind of self-portrait," shaped by what the artist selects. New wall-mounted ceramics in geometric forms, including Receding Cloud at the Golden Time of Day and Black Moon (both 2026), study how a kiln's atmosphere changes a surface. The gallery links their shapes to Buddhist mandalas and stupas.
The second gallery is a listening room built around the Dinh Nguyen Collection, more than 14,000 recordings gathered by a French Vietnamese DJ and collector. The sound system is switched on regularly.
About the artist
Theaster Gates (b. 1973) was born in Chicago and still lives and works there. With training in sculpture and urban planning, Gates studied pottery in Tokoname, Japan, in the late 1990s. The work often reuses culturally significant materials, such as decommissioned fire hose that refers to the Civil Rights struggle, and the band The Black Monks has been a constant part of the practice. In Chicago, projects including the Stony Island Arts Bank and Rebuild Foundation turn vacant buildings into community sites. Gates received the Nasher Sculpture Prize in 2018.
Sources: White Cube: Theaster Gates · White Cube Seoul: African Still Life
