Shaunté Gates

“This Is Not A Test” Virginia Tech University // Moss Arts Center January 21 - March 30 2025 “This Is Not A Test” is a solo exhibition by Shaunté Gates, featuring a survey of mixed-media paintings and densely layered works created between 2014 and 2024. These pieces seamlessly blend photography, painting, collage, and found materials, resulting in surreal, dreamlike compositions that merge portraiture, landscape, and architecture. Spanning from Gates’ final year working in television to the present, the exhibition also includes “The Free Breakfast Program,” a video project Gates began in 2014 which continues to evolve in tandem with his paintings, influencing and being influenced by them. Trained in traditional painting and portraiture, Gates’ paintings evolved into a mixed and multimedia expression in 2004 when he began working in television as a motion graphics artist and video editor. Working with images and video footage of music artists and television personalities to create show openings and promotional content subtly and organically influenced his paintings, integrating elements of motion and media into his evolving artistic practice. “The relationship was reciprocal; the painter spirit was feeding the digital work and, in turn, my paintings,” Gates explains. “Aesthetically and thematically, I embraced the contradiction. As my paintings began to explore themes of introspection and the influence of mass media on society, I started to see them as theatrical. Just as I did for television, I began photographing and casting images of family and friends as protagonists for my paintings. I also incorporate found photos of other cast members, architecture, and stills from cinema and video games, collaging them into these densely layered, stage-like settings.” Many Thanks!!🙏🏾 @kevinandrewcurran @speronewestwater @bjholcombe and crew @artscenteratvt ✨✨✨✨✨ ………. music: #PinkFloyd #time #Thisisnotatest #societyofthespectacle #freebreakfstprogram #shauntegates #painting #tv

Check out William Corwin’s very attentive review of “In Light of the Hunt” in the @brooklynrail @william_corwin Thank you!! 🖤 • Tap link in bio to read the full review • Shaunté Gates’s new series of paintings In light of the Hunt is Rubenesque. Gates’s stories are told at the intersection of the mythological and the political with dizzying composition and at the point of maximum energy: immersive and baroque works. Like Rubens, Gates plucks real-world figures, in this case his own circle of friends and acquaintances, and dresses them in a fanciful couture residing somewhere between armor and sportsgear. He places these figures in a fictional context dripping with political allegory. Gates has used the storyline of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now as a backdrop for the depiction of his character’s undisclosed trials, but while the characters in the 1979 movie are merely the crew of a patrol boat, Gates elevates his figures to singular heroes. In Cobalt is Red, Poppies Are Too (all works 2023) the protagonist struggles upstream, aided or possibly thwarted by two other figures, one a horned dog… -William Corwin “In Light of the Hunt” Open through Oct. 28 @speronewestwater #grateful #shauntegates #inlightofthehunt #artreview

I’m super proud to announce that I am one of the twenty recipients of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation's 2022 grant cycle!! Feeling very honored to be awarded amongst such an impressive group of artist. Congrats to all other awardees! and many thanks to my nominator and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation! ⚡️⚡️⚡️ Established in 1918 by Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of the founder of Tiffany & Company, the Foundation remains one of the largest single sources of monetary grants to artists working in America today. Since 1980, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation’s biennial competition has awarded artists working in painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video, and craft media with grants to produce new work and push the boundaries of their creativity. Since 1980, more than $10,000,000 in awards has been distributed to more than 500 artists nationwide. #louiscomforttiffanyfoundation #shauntegates #artaward #2022

With work currently on view in the Wellin’s group show ‘EXODUS,’ artist Shaunté Gates (@studio.gates ) began his formal artistic training in oil portraiture, but his visual language expanded after working as a video editor and motion graphics artist at Black Entertainment Television (BET). This experience introduced him to new ways of thinking about image construction, leading him to incorporate layers of found imagery, photography, and video into his practice. Gates’s process is both iterative and tactile — he builds up images through layering prints and photographs, then partially removes them, and obscures or reveals elements. Although his work focuses on twenty-first-century subject matter, it draws heavily on the century-old legacy of Surrealism. Dreams, absurd social realities, science-fiction fantasies, and childhood memories intermingle in scenes that feel both theatrical and disorienting. Through these layered compositions, Gates explores enduring questions of how identity is affected by our subconscious as well as the technology that surrounds us. Tap our link in bio to read the full blog post and stay tuned for more ‘EXODUS’ artist features now through the show’s closing on April 18, 2026. — Installation photography by @johnbentham  + artist portrait by @jtrphoto

Thank you!!! @whitehotmagazine 🌺 @jakobdwight ✍🏾🙏🏾✨ Check out the full convo from link in bio 👉🏾 The Night Before: Poppies & Parachutes Last day to catch the show!..Tomorrow Feb.28th @marcstrausgallery 57 Walker St. ✨

At Marc Straus gallery: Shaunté Gates, “The Night Before: Poppies & Parachutes.” The painting really feels alive.

The Night Before: Poppies & Parachutes Opens tonight 5 - 8p @marcstrausgallery 57 Walker st. Tribeca NY 💙 #poppies&parachutes @marcstrausgallery #tribecanyc

🔔Opening Reception — This Friday🔔 The Night Before: Poppies & Parachutes January 9th 5-8p Marc Straus Gallery 57 Walker St. Tribeca NY Please come through and join us in celebrating a body of work that has completely consumed me — hence the late notice 🙏🏾💙 This marks my first exhibition with Marc Straus Gallery and I really look forward to sharing it with you. It’ll be on view through February 28th. Much Love, Te @marcstrausgallery #TheNightBefore #openingreception #MarcStrausGallery #tribecany

Step into ‘EXODUS’ and discover the work of seven artists—Akili Ron Anderson, Wesley Clark, Larry W. Cook, Shaunté Gates, Hubert Massey, Stan Squirewell, and Felandus Thames. Displayed alongside @jamearichmondedwards ’ solo exhibition ‘Another World and Yet the Same,’ this group show honors the vital role of artistic kinship and collaboration in navigating both personal and structural challenges within the creative field. The exhibition’s title, ‘EXODUS,’ acknowledges the uncertain path to becoming a professional artist and the community of peers and teachers who helped her navigate the road through shared wisdom and solidarity. The works in this exhibition span diverse mediums and explore different themes, yet together they map a collective voyage—rooted in resilience, transformation, and the enduring power of artistic exchange.  Experience ‘EXODUS’ now through April 18, 2026, at the Wellin Museum of Art. #ExodusWellin

Tune in to @cerebral_women podcast, where I was interviewed by the lovely Phyllis Hollis..Thank you! link in bios •••••••••••• Ep.242 features Washington, D.C based artist Shaunté Gates. ‘Gates’s stories are told at the intersection of the mythological and the political with dizzying composition and at the point of maximum energy: immersive and baroque works.’ ~ William Corwin | Brooklyn Rail | October 2023 **Recent solo exhibition** Shaunté Gates “This Is Not a Test” January 23 - March 30, 2025 Ruth C. Horton Gallery Moss Ctr. Virginia Tech University Blacksburg, VA. Tune-In Tomorrow. Link in bio. #ShauntéGates #WilliamCorwin #VirginiaTechUniversity #MossArtsCenter #BrooklynRail ##phyllishollis #cerebralwomen #artistssavedme #artwillsaveus

On view through March 30th “This Is Not A Test” works from 2014-2024 . Virginia Tech University // Moss Arts Center @artscenteratvt . 🔔The 2nd page is a clip from a video titled “Free Breakfast Program 1.7”, which I started in 2014 for a show commemorating the Black Panther Party’s 50th anniversary, titled, “It Takes A Nation”. The work has continued to evolve alongside my paintings to this day, as sort of a digital sketchbook.. . . “This Is Not A Test” is a solo exhibition by Shaunté Gates, featuring a survey of mixed-media paintings and video created between 2014 and 2024. These pieces seamlessly blend photography, painting, collage, archival footage and found materials, resulting in surreal, dreamlike compositions that merge portraiture, landscape, and architecture. Trained in traditional painting and portraiture, Gates’ paintings evolved into a mixed and multimedia expression in 2004 when he began working in television as a motion graphics artist and video editor. Working with images and video footage of music artists and television personalities to create show openings and promotional content subtly and organically influenced his paintings, integrating elements of motion and media into his evolving artistic practice. “The relationship was reciprocal; the painter spirit was feeding the digital work and, in turn, my paintings,” Gates explains. “Aesthetically and thematically, I embraced the contradiction. As my paintings began to explore themes of introspection and the influence of mass media on society, I started to see them as theatrical. Just as I did for television, I began photographing and casting images of family and friends as protagonists for my paintings. I also incorporate found photos of other cast members, architecture, and stills from cinema and video games, collaging them into these densely layered, stage-like settings.” #thisosnotatest #surveyexhibition #societyofthespectacle

#Somewhere in #Paris in #November ❤️