Photo credit: Biko Gates
Ep.242 Shaunté Gates (b. 1979) lives and works in Washington, D.C. He studied at Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Bowie State University. Early in his career, Gates trained in oil painting and portraiture. His past experience as a tattoo artist and television motion graphics editor caused a profound shift in his artistic practice. His recent work employs a multidisciplinary approach, layering photography, painting, and found text to create dreamlike landscapes that explore labyrinthine social constructs and the physical sites that house and perpetuate them. Echoing the aesthetics of paper theater, his compositions unfold like intricate stage sets, where layered imagery and shifting perspectives evoke a sense of constructed reality and theatrical illusion.
Gates was a participating artist in the Smithsonian Institution’s “Men of Change” four-year traveling exhibition spanning ten museums, including the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC, California African American Museum, Cincinnati Underground Railroad Museum and Washington State History Museum (2019-23).
He has been awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Grant (2022) and residencies with The Nicholson Project (2023), The Kennedy Center (2019) and Washington Project for the Arts (2018; 2017). Gates has work in esteemed private collections and institutions such as the Studio Museum in Harlem and Munson, Utica, NY. He has completed many public art commissions, including Transcending, a painting commemorating the 140th anniversary of Howard University School of Law.
Artist https://www.shauntegates.com/
VirginiaTech https://artscenter.vt.edu/exhibitions/shaunte-gates.html
Sperone Westwater https://www.speronewestwater.com/artists/shaunte-gates#tab:slideshow
Marc Straus https://marcstraus.com/artists/98-shaunte-gates/
FAD Magazine https://fadmagazine.com/2025/03/03/marc-straus-gallery-now-represent-shaunte-gates/
Zidoun-Bossuyt https://zidoun-bossuyt.com/artists/shaunte-gates/ | https://zidoun-bossuyt.com/exhibitions/shaunte-gates-poppies-parachutes-iii-we-should-be-flying-by-now/
Smithsonian https://menofchange.si.edu/exhibit/artist-pairings/shaunte-gates/
The Roanoker https://theroanoker.com/events/shaunt%C3%A9-gates-2025/
Phillips Collection https://www.phillipscollection.org/event/2024-08-25-collaging-shaunte-gates
Brooklyn Rail https://brooklynrail.org/2023/10/artseen/Shaunt-Gates-In-Light-of-the-Hunt/
Culture Type https://www.culturetype.com/tag/shaunte-gates/
Washington Informer Bridge https://wibridgedc.com/the-transformative-power-of-found-objects-with-shaunte-gates/
RUSH Philanthropic https://rushphilanthropic.org/artist/shaunte-gates/
All photo credits Biko Gates
“Two Archers, Showboats and A Pig Float”
2024
acrylic, photography, pulled paper, collage, colored pencils, thread on wood panel
72 x 48 in
“When a Charioteer Hear The Poppies Applaud The Wind, Racing Yachts Again”
2024
acrylic, photography, cowhide, charcoal, pulled paper, collage, thread on wood panel
72 x 48 in
“Where’s The Picador”
2021
acrylic, photo, pulled paper, collage, charcoal on wood panel
72 x 48 in
“The Great Escape Sometimes”
2021
acrylic, photo, pulled paper, collage, charcoal on wood panel
72 x 48 in
