Art Events, Paris

Tar, Memory and Transformation: Theaster Gates at White Cube Paris

At White Cube Paris, artist Theaster Gates once again proves that the most unexpected materials can become the most powerful artistic language. His new exhibition, And Other Paintings, running from March 6 to April 4, 2026, explores the quiet poetry hidden within industrial materials, transforming tar, roofing membranes and enamel into works that blur the boundaries between painting, sculpture and architecture.

When Industry Becomes Art

At first glance, tar might seem an unlikely medium for contemporary art. Yet in Gates’ hands, this heavy, visceral substance becomes something almost lyrical. Large-scale Tar Paintings dominate the exhibition, their surfaces layered, fused and burned into richly textured compositions. Reclaimed roofing materials are saturated with enamel and manipulated through heat and gesture, resulting in works that feel both monumental and deeply tactile.

The material carries personal meaning for the artist. Gates learned roofing techniques alongside his father, a professional roofer, an experience he often describes as the foundation of his artistic practice. In these works, tar becomes more than a medium – it becomes memory, labor and history embedded into the surface of the painting.

Painting Beyond the Canvas

Visually, the paintings echo the legacy of modernist abstraction. Vast fields of color, grids and shifting tonal passages evoke the language of mid-century abstraction. Yet Gates disrupts that tradition by insisting on the presence of the material itself. These works do not conceal their origins. Instead, they highlight the marks of process – melted seams, layered membranes, charred surfaces – allowing the act of making to remain visible.

In several pieces, fragments of archival imagery appear beneath the dark surfaces, partially obscured yet still resonant. These references to historic photographic archives introduce a powerful dialogue between abstraction and cultural memory, reflecting Gates’ longstanding interest in preserving and reactivating overlooked narratives within Black cultural history.

Objects of Care and Preservation

Alongside the paintings, a series of sculptural vessels expands the exhibition’s exploration of material and ritual. These forms are wrapped and sealed in roofing membranes, creating objects that feel protective, almost ceremonial. The act of enveloping the sculptures suggests care and preservation, transforming industrial material into something intimate and contemplative.

The influence of Gates’ experience studying ceramics in Japan also appears subtly throughout the works, where the discipline of craft meets the raw physicality of industrial matter.

Ultimately, And Other Paintings reminds us that art does not always emerge from traditional beauty. Sometimes it begins with the weight of tar, the memory of labor and the quiet transformation of ordinary materials into something extraordinary.

White Cube Paris
10 Avenue Matignon, 75008 Paris
www.whitecube.com