San Gimignano
Beijing
Les Moulins
Habana
Roma
Sao Paulo
Paris
Hank Willis Thomas (born in 1976, Plainfield, New Jersey, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY as a conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including the International Center of Photography, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Musée du quai Branly, Hong Kong Arts Centre, and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art.
His collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males; In Search Of The Truth (The Truth Booth); The Writing on the Wall; The Gun Violence Memorial Project; and For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that models and increases creative civic engagement, discourse & direct action.
Thomas was the 2022 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts honoree from the Office of Art in Embassies, Washington DC. Additionally, he is the recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2019), The Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (2017), the Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), Aperture West Book Prize (2008), Renew Media Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation (2007), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award (2006). He is a former member of the Public Design Commission for the City of New York.
Thomas’s public art practice includes permanent artworks around the country, including The Embrace (2023) on the Boston Common in Boston, MA; REACH (2023) made in collaboration with Coby Kennedy, at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL; Duality (2023) at The Underline in Miami, FL; and The Truth is I Love You, at The Austin Public Library, Austin, TX. Additional permanent public artworks include Unity in Downtown Brooklyn, NY; Love Over Rules in San Francisco, CA; and All Power to All People in Opa Locka, FL.
Thomas holds a B.F.A. from New York University, New York, NY (1998) and an M.A./M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2004). He received an honorary doctorate from the CCA in 2024 as well as honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, ME in 2017.
2026
Forever Now, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2025
We the People, Davidson College Art Galleries, Davidson, NC
I AM MANY, Jack Shainman, New York, NY
Hank Willis Thomas: LOVERULES, University of Arizona, Tucson, NZ
2024
Kinship of the Soul, Pace Gallery, London
Hank Willis Thomas: LOVERULES, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
2023
I’ve Known Rivers, Pace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022
Everything We See Hides Another Thing, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
The New Black Aesthetic, Cleveland, OH
2021
Another Justice: Divided We Stand, Kayne Griffin, Los Angeles, CA
2020
All Things Being Equal..., Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AK
An All Colored Cast, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
2019
All Things Being Equal..., Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Exodusters, Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, NY
Donnez Votre Main, Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Hank Willis Thomas: unbranded, Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL
Hank Willis Thomas: Unbranded, ICA Miami, Miami, FL
2018
What We Ask Is Simple, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
Black Survival Guide, or How to Live Through a Police Riot, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Unbranded, The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
Unbranded/Branded, The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
My Life Is Ours, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong, China
2017
The Beautiful Game, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK
Freedom Isn’t always Beautiful and Blind Memory, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
2016
To Whom It May Concern, Jablonka Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Evidence of Things Not Seen, Kadist, San Francisco, CA
Hank Willis Thomas: I Am A Man, New City Arts Initiative, Charlottesville, VA
Unbranded: A Century of White Women, 1915 – 2015, Weatherspoon Art Museum, NC
Hank Willis Thomas: Black Righteous Space, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2015
Primary Sources, David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, RI
The Truth is I See You, Metrotech, Brooklyn, NY
In The Box: Hank Willis Thomas, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Unbranded: A Century of White Women 1915-2015, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
All Things Being Equal..., Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AK
An All Colored Cast, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Los Angeles, CA
2024
Sports and Beyond, Almine Rech, Paris, France
Get in the Game: Sports and Contemporary Culture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collections, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Push and Pull, Andrew Reed Gallery, Miami, FL
Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, Brooklyn Museum, NY
In Praise of Black Erranty, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2023
Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Inheritance, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
JUSTICE, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2022
Start Talking: Fischer/Shull Collection of Contemporary Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Objects of Desire: Photography and the Language of Advertising, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Another Justice: US is Them–Hank Willis Thomas & For Freedoms, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York
Stressed World, The School│Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, New York
2021
Break the Mold: New Takes on Traditional Art Making, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
7th Athens Biennale 2021 ECLIPSE, Athens Biennale, Athens, Greece
American Epidemic: Guns in the United States, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago, IL
2020
Jacob Lawrence: Struggle...From the History of the American People, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Object Lessons, Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, New York, NY
2019
Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power, MCA Chicago, Chicago, IL
Eldorama, Tri Postal, Lille, Métropole Européenne de Lille & Région Hauts-De-France, France
2018
Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL
2017
The Past is Present, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, New York
Double Take, SKARSTEDT, London, UK
Public Art in New York, Museum of the City of New York, New York
Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
Black Box: Kara Walker and Hank Willis Thomas, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Frac Aquaitaine, Bordeaux, France
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
