LOS ANGELES, CA.- Regen Projects announced that Theaster Gates has joined the gallery. This marks Gates’s first U.S. gallery representation since 2012.

Trained as a sculptor and an urban planner, Gates is an artist, urbanist, and curator whose work aims to catalyze social and economic change through direct artistic agency. He has gained international recognition for his multidisciplinary practice that includes ceramics, sculpture, painting, film, installation, music, and performance that bridge the gap between art and life. Gates has also received wide acclaim for repurposing and developing a number of under-utilized buildings on Chicago’s South Side–transforming them into multi-use spaces for critical engagement with diverse communities.

“I have long admired Theaster’s expansive practice as well as his commitment and ability to create dialogue. The rigor, intelligence, and communicability of his artwork combine to make a profoundly relevant and topical oeuvre. We are proud to support his endeavors and to help him continue to realize his significant work,” notes Shaun Caley Regen, President of Regen Projects.

Gates’s first solo exhibition at the gallery will open January 14, 2017. In addition to Regen Projects he is represented by White Cube.

Theaster Gates was born in 1973 in Chicago, where he lives and works.

His work has been included in numerous exhibitions worldwide. Solo shows include To Speculate Darkly: Theaster Gates and Dave the Potter, Milwaukee Art Museum (2010); Seattle Art Museum (2011); 13th Ballad, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2013); and The Black Monastic, Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2014). Group shows include the Whitney Biennial, New York (2010); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012); The Spirit of Utopia, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013); and When Stars Collide, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2014). Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Black Archive, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (April 23 – June 26); Fondazione Prada, Milan (July 7 – September 23); and How to Build a House Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (July 21 – October 30).

Gates has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Kurt Schwitters Prize (2017); Smithsonian Ingenuity Award for Social Progress (2015); the Artes Mundi 6 Prize (2015); the inaugural Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics (2013); United States Artists Fellowship (2012); Graham Foundation Architecture Award (2012, 2009); and Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue Award (2008). He is the founder and Artistic Director of the non-profit Rebuild Foundation, and through the University of Chicago is Professor in the Department of Visual Art and Director of the Arts and Public Life Initiative.