Hank Willis Thomas

Thomas (b. 1976) primarily works with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity and popular culture. His work often incorporates widely-recognizable icons from well-known advertising or branding campaigns to explore their ability to reinforce generalizations developed around race, gender and ethnicity. Thomas holds a B.F.A. from NYU and an MFA from California College of the Arts. He received an honorary doctorate from the Maryland Institute of Art and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, ME. 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; and the Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong. Thomas is a recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2019), The Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), Aperture West Book Prize (2008), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award (2006).