There's No Place Like Home

Artist Shaunté Gates (American, born 1979)

Date2021

MediumAcrylic, photographs, pulled paper, American history textbook paper, collage, and charcoal on wood panel

DimensionsOverall: 48 × 72in. (121.9 × 182.9cm)
Framed: 50 × 74in. (127 × 188cm)

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2022.5

DescriptionShaunté Gates’ series, The Land of Myth, consists of large-scale, richly detailed collages. His subject is home, both personal and within the traditions of mythology–notably, the hero’s journey that leads to the discovery of self. Gates’ dynamic, fluid imagery depicts familiar and strange landscapes: neighborhood scenes of children playing are interwoven with powerful, hybrid-animal creatures and symbols of war and loss, such as parachutes and red-paper poppies. Gates’ sensitivity to material creates beautiful compositions with surface textures that incorporate layers of drawing, photographs, and text that are both personal to him and epic in scope.

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Assemblage

Label TextThere Is No Place Like Home presents a man riding a powerful winged creature that is also jaguar and horse. They leap into an urban landscape that has recognizable features – standing man, building, manhole cover – but is also strange and murky. Gates’ mixed-material works of art, such as There Is No Place Like Home, are dreamlike and mythic landscapes based on his childhood in Washington, D.C. The layers of paint and paper reflect the layers of his memories. The images recall a particular geography, the people who lived there, and experiences over time in Gates’ public housing neighborhood in the nation’s capital. Shaunté Gates’ series, The Land of Myth, consists of large-scale, richly detailed collages. His subject is home, both personal and within the traditions of mythology–notably, the hero’s journey that leads to the discovery of self. Gates’ dynamic, fluid imagery depicts familiar and strange landscapes: neighborhood scenes of children playing are interwoven with powerful, hybrid-animal creatures and symbols of war and loss, such as parachutes and red-paper poppies. Gates’ sensitivity to material creates beautiful compositions with surface textures that incorporate layers of drawing, photographs, and text that are both personal to him and epic in scope.