Civic Center, New York
Hank Willis Thomas
I Am Many
Jack ShainmanJack Shainman Gallery is pleased to present I Am Many, an exhibition featuring new and recent work by Hank Willis Thomas, the artist’s eighth exhibition with the gallery and first in their newly opened Tribeca flagship location. Bringing together large-scale sculptures, retroreflective, lenticular and textile works along with a group of mixed-media assemblages, I Am Many continues Thomas’ investigation into the myriad of ways that the past and present remain interwoven and interconnected. These works explore the legacies of exploitation and oppression in conjunction with new forms of community and solidarity. Over the past two decades Thomas’ conceptual practice has employed a wide range of media, from photography and sculpture, to screen printing, installation and video. Drawing from both archival and contemporary imagery that references historical examples of political resistance through iconic photographs or contemporary acts of protest, Thomas regularly recontextualizes popular imagery as source material for his works. What unites Thomas’ work across media is his emphasis on the multivalent nature of historical meaning—as something that can always be reshaped and seen from different perspectives. he exhibition takes its title from an eponymous work that references photographs from the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike which saw Black men assembled with posters all bearing the same message of I Am a Man and in nearly identical typeface. Thomas has transformed that historic message by creating new iterations that expand out from the original phrase, with retroreflective vinyl that, once activated by direct light, reveals latent, previously hidden images of historic protests. Removed and repositioned from their original context, the crowds underscore the enduring power conveyed by the written word. Jack Shainman stated, "Few artists are able to interpret history in ways that provide new strategies for understanding the present. Hank Willis Thomas has done this consistently throughout his career with successive bodies of work that blend technical sophistication with metaphoric depth. Exhibiting Hank's work in our Tribeca gallery—itself embodying a beautiful but complicated period in American history—promises to be a fitting example of what we envisioned for the space, one where the past can be reanimated by contemporary visions and new material sensibilities.”