Hank Willis Thomas (American, b. 1976) is widely recognized for recontextualizing familiar photographs, symbols, and language to examine how meaning shifts over time and across perspectives. His newest works continue an ongoing commitment to use art to interrogate history, bring to bear its fractures and omissions, and look forward, helping us imagine the future we want and deserve.
Thomas holds a B.F.A. from New York University, New York, NY (1998) and an M.A./M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2004). He has received honorary doctorates from MassArt, MA (2025), CCA (2024), the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD (2017), and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, ME (2017). His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including the International Center of Photography, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Musée du quai Branly, Hong Kong Arts Centre, and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. His collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males; In Search Of The Truth (The Truth Booth); The Writing on the Wall; The Gun Violence Memorial Project; and For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that models and increases creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action.
Thomas was the 2022 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts honoree from the Office of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C. Additionally, he is the recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2019), The Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (2017), Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), Aperture West Book Prize (2008), Renew Media Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation (2007), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award (2006). He is a former member of the Public Design Commission for the City of New York. Thomas’s public art practice includes permanent artworks around the country, including The Embrace (2023) on the Boston Common in Boston, MA; REACH, (2023) made in collaboration with Coby Kennedy, at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL; Duality (2023) at The Underline in Miami, FL; and The Truth is I Love You, at The Austin Public Library, Austin, TX. Additional permanent public artworks include Unity, in Downtown Brooklyn, NY; Love Over Rules in San Francisco, CA; and All Power to All People in Opa Locka, FL.
Thomas holds a B.F.A. from New York University, New York, NY (1998) and an M.A./M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2004). He has received honorary doctorates from MassArt, MA (2025), CCA (2024), the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD (2017), and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, ME (2017). His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including the International Center of Photography, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Musée du quai Branly, Hong Kong Arts Centre, and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. His collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males; In Search Of The Truth (The Truth Booth); The Writing on the Wall; The Gun Violence Memorial Project; and For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that models and increases creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action.
Thomas was the 2022 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts honoree from the Office of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C. Additionally, he is the recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2019), The Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (2017), Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), Aperture West Book Prize (2008), Renew Media Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation (2007), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award (2006). He is a former member of the Public Design Commission for the City of New York. Thomas’s public art practice includes permanent artworks around the country, including The Embrace (2023) on the Boston Common in Boston, MA; REACH, (2023) made in collaboration with Coby Kennedy, at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL; Duality (2023) at The Underline in Miami, FL; and The Truth is I Love You, at The Austin Public Library, Austin, TX. Additional permanent public artworks include Unity, in Downtown Brooklyn, NY; Love Over Rules in San Francisco, CA; and All Power to All People in Opa Locka, FL.