HANK WILLIS THOMAS

By employing the ubiquitous language of advertising, Hank Willis Thomas is able to talk explicitly about race, class and history in a medium that almost everyone can decode. The artist is particularly interested in the commodification of the African-American male body and the fraught connection between this figure and the cotton and slave trade that brought this country so much wealth. Today, African-American sports stars are traded similarly. Using the same idiom as advertisements, many of the works have been displayed on public kiosks and telephone booths, and emblazoned on t-shirts, hats, and bags.