THE ART OF ATTENTION

From injecting a sharecropper into a college kickoff to turning the Nike swoosh on its head, Hank Willis Thomas uses staples of America’s ethos to comment on its inequities

- HENRI NEUENDORF

Hank Willis Thomas is traveling.

This time he’s in Oregon to install the first major retrospective of his work, at the Portland Art Museum. On view through January 12, 2020, the exhibit will travel to Arkansas in February and Cincinnati in July. It’s a major achievement for the 43-yearold artist, a career milestone he has worked up to ever since earning his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2004. Throughout his career, Thomas has developed a reputation as one of America’s most versatile and outspoken artists, using photography, sculpture, video and collaborative public art projects to raise awareness about social justice and civil rights. That range might stem, in part, from what Thomas calls “some form of ADHD.”

“When I look at my survey show, it’s like, Oh wow, that’s definitely a broad spectrum of work,” he says. “I’ve always hoped that people can see the connections.”

A black artist who draws extensively on advertising, nostalgia and other outgrowths of pop culture, Thomas keeps his Brooklyn studio lined with shelves of meticulously organized boxes packed with back issues of iconic black-culture magazines such as Ebony and Jet, as well as retro campaign buttons and other source material. His early photographic work suggests that the collective consciousness of any society is reflected in its advertising. The poignant 2003 series Branded, for example, features photographs of black men marked with the Nike swoosh logo to comment on the relationships among advertising, race and consumerism.