NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ.- Hank Willis Thomas: LOVERULES — From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation brings together nearly 90 works by conceptual artist and activist Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976; Plainfield, New Jersey). Surveying the artist’s most iconic artworks across a range of media, the exhibition explores how images shape perception, identity, and values. By questioning what feels familiar, Thomas connects historical moments of resistance to our lives today and invites us to remain open to change.
The exhibition includes Thomas’s key conceptual series, which often draw on the visual language of advertising to reveal how meaning is constructed and circulated. Prints from Banded (2003) and Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America (2008) examine the ways that the Black community has been promoted in corporate communications, reinforcing generalizations across class, culture and gender. Visitors can also experience an immersive presentation of part two of Unbranded: A Century of White Women (2015), which unpacks the myriad ways advertisements have used the white, female body.
LOVERULES is organized by the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, and curated by Shamim M. Momin, Director and Chief Curator of The Bronx Museum. Lead sponsorship is provided by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. Additional support was provided by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the museum’s donors, members, and friends. This exhibition is made possible through generous support from donors to the Zimmerli’s Major Exhibition Fund: Kathrin and James Bergin, Sundaa and Randy Jones, Heena and Hemanshu Pandya, and Mark L. Pomerantz.
The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is one of the largest and most distinguished university-based museums in the country. Its far-reaching exhibitions and public programs explore creative expression from antiquity to the present day, with a focus on underrepresented artists and overlooked historical narratives. The institution stewards more than 75,000 works of art across all media, with strengths in post-war American art, nineteenth-century French art and cabaret culture, Soviet nonconformist art, and global Japanism. As a teaching museum and public collection, the Zimmerli is a critical educational hub for over 55,000 visitors annually. Rutgers stands among America’s highest-ranked, most diverse research universities. Founded in 1766, it is the nation’s eighth-oldest institution of higher learning.
