Curated by Theaster Gates

In recent years, New York–based multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams has become a key contributor to Afrofuturism’s second wave. In addition to presenting more general meditations on American popular culture, Adams’s work considers the forward movement of black people toward a freer future. Rebuild’s exhibition will present multiple works on paper that continue the artist’s recent engagements with media and futurity, and will showcase a new video and an opening-night performance. “Future People” will also capitalize on the Arts Bank’s many holdings, among them the Johnson Publishing Archive Collections, which includes photographs and materials related to Ebony and Jet magazines, and house-music progenitor Frankie Knuckles’s formidable record collection, which constitutes an essential history of black American music.

— Jamillah James