T heaster Gates Ground Rules (White Stars) of 2015 is a towering example of the artist’s acclaimed Ground Rules Series, which employs reclaimed floorboards from school gyms. Strips of scuffed wood stand tightly together, with pops of brightly colored paint from the stenciled boundary lines of the original floor emerging with a staccato patchwork reminiscent of abstraction. Initially studying urban planning at Iowa State University, Gate’s work is deeply entrenched within the urban landscape from his home city of Chicago. In the Ground Rules series, he repurposes decommissioned materials from high school gyms, restoring and re-deploying them into a canvas of their own design. An artist deeply engaged in the socio-political and racial tensions in the United States, these floorboards enact a conversation about the ongoing school closures on the southside of Chicago.
Theaster Gates is currently a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Visual Arts and the College, and has exhibited his breadth of sculpture, painting, installation and performance pieces at such esteemed institutions as the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany; Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2018); National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA (2017); Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2013); among others.
