ART CITIES:PARIS-Hank Willis Thomas
Working across photography, sculpture, screen printing, installation, and video, Hank Willis Thomas interweaves historical references with potent symbols drawn from visual culture. His practice interrogates how historical narratives are constructed and challenges established modes of representation, drawing attention to the shifting, layered nature of historical meaning. Rather than treating history as fixed, Thomas approaches it as an ongoing construct, one continually reshaped and rewritten, exposing the ways in which dominant power structures have distorted historical narratives to serve their own ends.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galleria Continua Gallery Archive
Hank Willis Thomas makes his long-awaited return to Paris after nearly two decades with “Afterimage”, a solo exhibition presenting a major highlight of the European art calendar. Marking the inauguration of Galleria Continua’s collaboration with the acclaimed American conceptual artist, this landmark presentation serves as the focal point of an ambitious multi-city program. The themes explored in Paris extend to concurrent exhibitions at Galleria Continua’s locations in Rome and San Gimignano, where Thomas engages in a visual dialogue with the legacy of Surrealist pioneer Man Ray. At the core of the Paris presentation is a deep exploration of identity, collective memory, and historical representation. Thomas is best known for dissecting media imagery to expose the underlying social structures, power dynamics, and inequalities embedded within visual culture. In an era defined by political polarization, his artwork invites audiences to reflect on historical civil rights gains while recognizing the fragility of social progress in the face of shifting political narratives. The exhibition showcases Thomas’s mastery of retroreflective media, a unique technique he has developed over the past decade. These mixed-media artworks use industrial retroreflective vinyl to create a dynamic, double-layered viewing experience. Under ordinary ambient gallery lighting, viewers encounter vibrant, graphic compositions influenced by modern masters like Henri Matisse and Seydou Keïta. However, when illuminated by direct light or flash photography, hidden archival photographs emerge from beneath the surface.
This optical shift turns viewing into an active experience. In works like “Woman in the Red Dress (After Keïta)”, Thomas overlays Keïta’s iconic 1957 Bamako portraiture with archival protest imagery, framing identity as a collective, evolving process. In another artwork, “The Toiler and Circe”, figures from African American art history pair with civil rights demonstration footage, using mythological themes of metamorphosis to examine visual memory and resistance. Complementing these optical works is an extensive selection of Thomas’s figurative sculptures. Drawing on classical sculpture traditions in bronze and marble, Thomas isolates universal human gestures such as embraces, handshakes, and raised fists, transforming them into modern monuments of connection. The sculpture “Community” features interlaced hands in a circular form with a rainbow patina, symbolizing unity and diversity. Meanwhile, “Everything we see hides another thing” references René Magritte’s Surrealist masterpiece “The Lovers”, obscuring the identities of its figures to challenge traditional ideas around race, gender, and the gaze. Afterimage stands as a compelling meditation on how history is remembered, offering viewers a powerful new lens through which to understand contemporary visual culture.
Photo: Hank Willis Thomas, Woman in the Red Dress (after Keïta) 2025 Impression sérigraphique et impression UV rétroréfléchissante montée sur Dibond 121,9 × 182,9 cm. Photo: © Jai Lennard, © Hank Willis Thomas, Courtesy of the artist & GALLERIA CONTINUA
Info: Galleria Continua, 108 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris, France, Duration: 17/9-28/11/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-13:00 & 14:00-19:00, www.galleriacontinua.com/
