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40-449: Founded in 1974 and inspired by the civil rights movement, it has been in the forefront of documenting the artistic journeys created by photographic artists often overlooked by the mainstream art world. En Foco has created exhibitions, workshops, fellowships and a permanent collection. The organization supports its constituent artists with direct and indirect funding opportunities. Through its visual arts programs, En Foco strives to balance

80-548: A "resolutely non-discriminatory space", protecting its artists and freedom of expression during the political tumult. Goodman Gallery focuses on collaborating with southern African artists, both established and emerging; those from the greater African continent; and international artists who engage with the African context. South African artists such as David Koloane , David Goldblatt , Sue Williamson and Sam Nhlengethwa have exhibited there. In 2008, Liza Essers purchased

120-512: A citywide public art exhibition throughout ten Philadelphia squares and parks in collaboration with the Mural Arts Program . Hank Willis Thomas installed a sculpture entitled, “All Power to all people” which consisted of an afro pick standing eight feet tall near Philadelphia city hall. In 2018, Thomas was accused of plagiarism by South African photographer Graeme Williams . A photograph that Williams took in 1990 of black children in

160-593: A jazz musician, and Deborah Willis , artist, photographer, curator and educator. Thomas attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts as a Museum Studies student. Thomas holds a B.F.A. in Photography and Africana studies from New York University (1998) and an M.A./M.F.A. in Photography and Visual Criticism from the California College of the Arts (2004). In 2017, he received honorary doctorates from

200-682: A member of the Black Panther Party . Thomas is married to Rujeko Hockley , assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born in 1976, Thomas was amazed that less than ten years before he was born people were still fighting to affirm their humanity. Inspired by the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers's slogan "I am a man", Thomas became interested in exploring how many different ways that phrase could be read. Thomas's work focuses on framing and context. He explores ideas about how history and culture are framed, who does

240-574: A photo campaign entitled Four Freedoms . In collaboration with photographers Emily Shur and Wyatt Gallery, Thomas and For Freedoms transformed Norman Rockwell 's depictions of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's 1941 address to Congress, which articulated FDR's vision of the four basic human freedoms. Thomas wrote that "The image haunted me because of the world we live in. I wanted to imagine what it would look like today." Through dozens of iterations of Rockwell's original four paintings,

280-471: A red cross over the depiction of Zuma's face and genitals and then by smearing black paint over the canvas . The two—Barend la Grange and Lowie Mabokela —were arrested. In exchange for the ANC's agreeing to drop a lawsuit, the gallery agreed to remove the work from the exhibition. In 2016, Goodman Gallery was named one of 500 best galleries worldwide by Modern Painters . It also celebrated its 50th anniversary

320-469: A team of artists, designers, and ethnographers creating innovative art in the public realm. The New York Times writes: "The “Truth Booth,” [is] a roving, inflatable creation by a group of artists calling itself the Cause Collective. The booth, in the shape of a cartoon word bubble with “TRUTH” in bold letters on its side, serves as a video confessional. Visitors are asked to sit inside and finish

360-665: Is a 27 monitor installation commissioned by the recently renovated Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport . The installation incorporates depictions of movement, migration and marching from different eras in Alabama history, for instance, the Civil War , the Children's March, the Selma Marches , football marching bands, the railroad, and migrations to the “Magic City.” The long row of monitors (the long march) track to

400-637: Is an art gallery founded in Johannesburg , South Africa by Linda Givon (previously Goodman) in 1966. The gallery operates spaces in Johannesburg, Cape Town , and London. It represents both established and emerging artists who are regarded as having helped shape the landscape of contemporary art in Southern Africa . Founded during apartheid , the gallery opened with a show of 30 artists, mostly leading European modernists. It remained

440-542: Is an anti-partisan platform for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. The name was inspired by American artist Norman Rockwell 's paintings of Franklin D. Roosevelt 's Four Freedoms (1941)—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Through exhibitions, installations, and public programs, the organization is established to deepen public discussions on civic issues and core values, and to advocate for equality, dialogue, and civic participation. In 2018, For Freedoms launched

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480-584: Is based on a photograph showing the Kings hugging after Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964." However, many viewers have focused on the rear approach, which drew some unintended comparisons, namely that it looks phallic. This further sparked jokes and even accusations that it's a waste of money and offensive. A cousin of Coretta Scott King, Seneca Scott, also criticized

520-728: Is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Ben Brown Fine Arts, London and Hong Kong; Goodman Gallery , South Africa; and Marauni Mercier, Belgium. Thomas lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Hank Willis Thomas' collaborative projects have been featured at the Sundance Film Festival and installed publicly at the Oakland International Airport , The Oakland Museum of California and the University of California , San Francisco. Thomas explores

560-411: The 50 State Initiative , the largest creative collaboration in U.S. history. In the fall of 2018, For Freedoms launched a major billboard campaign in every state, including Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The campaign included over 150 contemporary artists, including Marilyn Minter , Rashid Johnson , Guerrilla Girls , and Theaster Gates , among others. In October 2018, For Freedoms also launched

600-912: The Arts Council of Ireland , and the San Francisco Foundation. In collaboration with artists Chris Johnson , Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair, Question Bridge: Black Males is a platform for black men of all ages and backgrounds to ask and candidly respond to questions that are rarely discussed in public. Through video mediated question and answer exchange, diverse members of this “demographic” bridge economic, political, geographic, and generational divisions. The Question Bridge campaign seeks to represent and redefine Black male identity in America. Additional collaborators include Jesse Williams , Delroy Lindo , and Deborah Willis . From September 14 to November 10, 2017, Monument Lab began

640-855: The Maryland Institute College of Art and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. In 2024, CCA alum Thomas received an honorary doctorate from the California College of the Arts alongside Deb Willis. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad including the International Center of Photography , New York; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao , Spain; Musée du quai Branly , Paris; Hong Kong Arts Centre , Hong Kong, and

680-724: The Portland Art Museum in fall 2019 and will travel to additional U.S. museums in 2020. The exhibition will highlight Thomas' devotion to reframing perspectives on difficult issues central to American history and the representation of race and the politics of visual culture. In January 2023, his sculpture " The Embrace " was unveiled in the 1965 Freedom Plaza on the Common in Boston , Massachusetts . The 20 foot high bronze sculpture honors Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King and depicts their arms embracing. The artwork

720-668: The Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art , Netherlands. Thomas’ work is included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art , New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , New York; Whitney Museum of American Art , New York; Brooklyn Museum , New York; High Museum of Art , Atlanta, and the National Gallery of Art , Washington D.C. His collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males , In Search Of The Truth (The Truth Booth) , and For Freedoms , which

760-466: The 1973 traveling exhibition Dos Mundos (organized by the Institute of Contemporary Hispanic Art and exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico), a group of Puerto Rican photographers - Charles Biasiny-Rivera , Phil Dante, and Roger Cabán - banded together to form the core En Foco group and incorporated in 1974. In 2012 en exhibition of a selección of En Foco’s permanent collection

800-706: The 82 images in the campaign attempted to reflect the immeasurable diversity of American identities today. Celebrities such as Rosario Dawson , Dolores Huerta , Gina Belafonte, Van Jones , Jesse Williams , Robert A. Nakamura and Karen L. Ishizuka, Kiran Gandhi , Michael Ealy , Saul Williams , Rodney Barnette, and others were included in the reinterpretations. The new version of the images were widely shared on social media and Instagram , including by celebrities such as Alicia Keys and Jada Pinkett-Smith . Together with American academic, cultural critic and activist Baz Dreisinger , Thomas and Dreisinger's organization, Incarceration Nations Network, have collaborated to create

840-944: The Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. Thomas is the winner of the first ever Aperture West Book Prize for his monograph Pitch Blackness (November, 2008). His work has been featured in other publications including Reflections in Black (Norton, 2000), and the exhibitions along with accompanying publications 25 under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers (CDS, 2003), and 30 Americans (RFC, 2008). Other major publications include Aperature ' s Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal... (2018), and Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC)'s The Philly Block Project (2017). Thomas' first comprehensive survey Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal... opened at

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880-412: The background", without seeking permission from Magubane. Thomas defended his actions, saying that asking permission to use the photograph was a form of censorship. Magubane responded that Thomas' actions were arrogant, shameful and disrespectful. The Embrace , a sculpture meant to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King, sparked mixed reactions. The large scale, bronze "sculpture

920-478: The black male body by printing photographs of humiliations or executions of black men on retro-reflective vinyl (commonly used for street signs), rendering them invisible except under flash photography. Thomas has a permanent installation at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The piece, titled Rise Up , depicts a cement wall with statues of black heads and bodies emerging from

960-462: The center of the wall and meld into a kaleidoscope. The kaleidoscope is tiled in the shape of a Camellia —the Alabama state flower. The Camellia, in this instance, is a repository of past and present motion that represents the flowering that grows out of movement. The kaleidoscopic mixes and melds the long march footage creating new emergent patterns, forms and colors. The travelers who will encounter

1000-698: The foreground and white policemen in the background was modified by Thomas, removing colour from the background. The photograph was exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Fair, with an asking price of US$ 36000, without attribution or mention of Williams. Thomas defended himself saying that what he had done was "akin to sampling, remixing". In a separate case, South African photographer, Peter Magubane , who has photo-documented life in South Africa for six decades, discovered that Thomas had also altered one of his photos, similarly putting "a white fade over

1040-455: The framing, and how this affects our interpretation of reality. In his work he focuses on speaking about popular culture and does so by using a variety of different mediums. He specifically likes to use photography because of the way you can edit a photograph, which can be a way of retelling history. Thomas has also stated that the artist Kerry James Marshall was a big influence on him and his work. Goodman Gallery Goodman Gallery

1080-483: The gallery. In 2012, South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress , went to court to try to force Goodman Gallery to remove The Spear , a painting by Brett Murray that appeared to depict South Africa's president Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed. On the morning of 22 May 2012, two men entered the gallery during visiting hours and defaced the painting—first by painting

1120-402: The inequities of the art world by creating the 'missing pages' in art history. In 1984 it created the bilingual (English/Spanish) photographic magazine Nueva Luz , which concentrates on works by U.S.-based photographers of color. Some photographers En Foco has exhibited or written about are Hank Willis Thomas , Sama Raena Alshaibi , Juan Sánchez, Hong-An Truong and Víctor Vázquez. Inspired by

1160-475: The piece will be able to envision themselves as part of this mosaic that is symbolized through Alabama's relationship to ‘the march’ as a form of historical progression. Thomas is working on the long-term and global public art project In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth) . Also known as "The Truth Booth" it is in collaboration with Ryan Alexiev, Jim Ricks , and Will Sylvester, all members of Cause Collective,

1200-776: The politically and metaphysically loaded sentence that begins, “The truth is ...”". To date, the project has travelled Ireland, Afghanistan, South Africa, Australia, the United States, and Mexico. It embarked on a world tour at the Galway Arts Festival , Ireland in 2011. It debuted in the US during the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia in June 2012. Throughout this long-term project

1240-586: The representation of the African-American male body in visual culture in his B(r)anded Series. Writing in The Guardian , critic Arwa Mahdawi observed: "Thomas's work 'unbrands' advertising: stripping away the commercial context, and leaving the exposed image to speak for itself." His two screenprints of 2013, And I Can't Run and Blow the Man Down, express the erasure of past injustices to

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1280-406: The same year with the two-part curatorial mission, In Context, co-curated by Essers and artist Hank Willis Thomas that explored notions of African identity in both the United States and Africa. The gallery hosted the seventh international conference on African and African American art, Black Portraiture[s] III: Reinventions, Strains of Histories and Culture. Also in 2016, Goodman Gallery signed

1320-445: The sculpture for not including her face. However, it was funded by private donations and meant to inspire change, and Scott admitted his initial anger stemmed from grief and a misunderstanding. 2023 2022 2018 2017 2007 Listed in reverse chronological order. Thomas's mother, Deborah Willis , is an art photographer and an NYU professor. His father, also Hank Thomas, is a jazz musician , film producer, physicist, and

1360-683: The top of the wall whose arms are raised in surrender. The piece comments on the incidents of police violence and police brutality that are prevalent in current American society. In 2017, Thomas also unveiled his permanent public artwork Love Over Rules in San Francisco and All Power to All People in Opa Locka, Florida. Thomas has acted as a visiting professor at CCA and in the MFA programs at Maryland Institute College of Art and ICP/Bard and has lectured at Yale University, Princeton University,

1400-766: The traveling exhibition and installation, The Writing On The Wall (TWOTW), constructed from over 2,000 pages of writing and art by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people across the world. TWOTW was first displayed on New York City's High Line in November, 2019, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the collaborators have adapted the content to be projected onto city buildings and landscapes, including jails and courthouses – first in New York, then in Washington, D.C., and Ohio. The installation's first international showing

1440-420: The video footage is compiled and edited into a video artwork. To expand and engage with audiences, the movements of "The Truth Booth" and sample responses are tracked, edited, and categorized on a website. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to try to capture as many definitions, confessions and thoughts on The Truth as possible, creating a diverse ‘portrait’ of people across the globe. It was first supported by

1480-742: Was awarded the 2017 ICP Infinity Award for New Media and Online Platform. In 2012, Question Bridge: Black Males debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected for the New Media Grant from the Tribeca Film Institute . Thomas is also the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AGO Photography Prize (2017), Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), and is a member of the New York City Public Design Commission . Thomas

1520-483: Was in Mexico City in late June. The Cause Collective is a team of artists, designers and ethnographers creating innovative art in the public realm. Their projects explore and enliven public spaces by creating a dynamic conversation between issues, sites and the public audience. By exploring ideas that affect and shape society, the collective seeks to add the "public" back into public space and art. The Long March

1560-634: Was inspired by a black and white photo of the couple sharing an embrace after Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize . On September 13, 2023, Thomas was one of the five recipients of the 2023 Medal of Arts, a prestigious accolade created by the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies program and awarded to him by Jill Biden. Founded in 2016 along with artist Eric Gottesman , Michelle Woo, and Wyatt Gallery , For Freedoms

1600-636: Was presented at the Art Museum of the Americas and included works by Chuy Benitez and Lola Flash among others. Hank Willis Thomas Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976) is an American conceptual artist . Based in Brooklyn, New York , he works primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Hank Willis Thomas was born in 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey to Hank Thomas,

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