The 12th Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts goes to American artist Theaster Gates. The international jury praised the sculptor, ceramist and activist in a broadcast as someone who “recognizes a problem in the world, accepts challenges and brings about change in society and the city.” The prize, awarded with 55,000 Euros (USD 65,000), will be presented in late autumn by Vienna’s City Councilor for Culture, Veronica Kaup-Hasler.

Theaster Gates addresses issues of spatial planning as well as the revitalization and revitalization of buildings. The award-winning artist’s focus is on community building and maintaining black culture in America. The 48-year-old takes up skills such as sculpture, painting, spatial intervention, film and music. The Chicago-born has become famous with the Rebuild Foundation, his non-profit organization that has transformed abandoned rooms and buildings in southern Chicago into cultural places for the neighborhood. Since then, his work has been featured in important museums and international exhibitions around the world such as documenta13 in Kassel or the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In Austria, his work has already been exhibited at the Kunsthaus Bregenz.

“Theaster Gates moves masterfully at the interface between architecture, urban planning, and art, which is why he is predestined to receive the Frederick Kiesler Prize. His entire oeuvre, and the Rebuild Foundation in particular, perfectly exemplifies how art and architecture can also have a social impact. Theaster Gates is a worthy winner of the Frederick Kiesler Prize and – on top of this – a role model for all those who are active in this area.”

Andrea Mayer, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport

“Gates’ breakthroughs can easily be attributed to Frederick Kiesler’s artistic concepts and his experimental attitude, in the direction of integrating all the arts into the built environment and a social conception of space, ” the jury stated. At his Rebuild Foundation he combined cultural history and community building by transforming “ruins into something new. He associates art, architecture and altruistic entrepreneurship – but above all he is someone who recognizes a problem in the world, accepts challenges and brings about change in society and the city,” the jury praised the fine arts professor at the University of Chicago.

“Spatial platforms that highlight the contributions of Black artists and designers have been long overlooked. Projects that consider people as much as they consider the implications of the built form deserve merit. I’m so grateful to be part of this precedent and honored that the selection committee would acknowledge my practice as part of the amazing work by luminaries who have received this award in the past. I’m thankful to all who have supported my practice both within museums and on the street.”

Theaster Gates, Kiesler Prize Laureate 2021

The high-profile jury included Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York), the jury chairperson Bettina Götz (ARTEC Architekten, Wien), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (Paris), Anab Jain (Superflux, London and the University of Applied Arts Vienna), and Wolfgang Tschapeller (Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna).
Since it was established in 1997, the Frederick Kiesler Prize has been awarded to Frank O. Gehry (1998), Judith Barry (2000), Cedric Price (2002), Asymptote Architecture / Hani Rashid + Lise Anne Couture (2004), Olafur Eliasson (2006), Toyo Ito (2008), Heimo Zobernig (2010), Andrea Zittel (2012), Bruce Nauman (2014), Andrés Jaque (2016) and Yona Friedman (2018).

The prize is awarded and endowed alternately every two years by the Republic of Austria and the City of Vienna and organized by the Vienna-based Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the selection of the winner of the prize for 2020 was delayed until 2021. The official presentation of the award by Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Vienna City Councilor for Cultural Affairs and Science, is scheduled for late autumn 2021.