Viewing Hank Willis Thomas: Kinship of the Soul at Pace Gallery

The American conceptual artist returns to London this week with a new solo exhibition at Pace’s London gallery showcasing a new body of retroreflective collage pieces. Thomas has long been interested in the medium and its ability to carry histories, fragmented forms articulating the experiences and impact of colonialism and globalism. Drawing on major figures from Matisse to Romare Bearden – the kindred creative souls for the work – Thomas lights his own path in the medium.

The collages incorporate images from the artist’s ongoing research into historical protests and activist movements all over the globe, as well as protest material from the UK, weaving a broad narrative that gives a soaring sense of interconnected struggles – another take on the ‘kinship of the soul’ that the show’s title alludes to.

Thomas’ use of retroreflective vinyl – usually found in road signs – is also worth noting. Thomas has been experimenting with the material for almost a decade, and they create an incredible illusory effect that has to be seen in person, the layers and light creating their own rhythms and dialogues between archival and personal records, and adding nuance to the artist’s explorations of figuration and abstraction.