"After 1968" features "Unbranded" work by Hank Willis Thomas

This summer at the High Museum of Art
After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy
June 7–October 5, 2008

Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas, born 1976, appropriates images and language from advertising, exploring the intersection of commerce with the cultural ambiguity underlying African American experiences. His 2004 thesis, Swoosh: Looking Black at Nike, Moses, and Jordan in the ’80s, explores the process whereby a myth or image can become attached to a graphic symbol. His soon-to-be-completed Unbranded series is an exploration of racial typing in capitalist culture. Reproducing 80 images printed between 1968 and 2008 in popular magazine ads targeted to black audiences, “Unbranded” presents text-stripped images, meditating on the creation and dissemination of stereotypes.