At Prada Home in Milan, Theaster Gates weaves a story of cultures and rituals through objects

At the new Prada Home space on Via Montenapoleone, Theaster Gates presents Chawan Cabinet, an installation organised around ceramic vessels and the behaviours they produce. During Milan Design Week 2026, the project brought together editioned works by Gates alongside Japanese potters Taira Kuroki, Yuichi Hirano, Shion Tabata and Koichi Ohara, with larger sculptural elements from Gates’ Chicago studio and tea master, Yukino Washizu.

Gates, who works across sculpture, urban planning and pedagogy – including his role at the University of Chicago – is clear about where this began. 'Part of what I wanted to do with the project is demonstrate how when you have a specific ideological position, you can then make a very precise declaration,' he says. 'It’s not exactly Japanese, but it is with my friends, who are Japanese. It’s not exactly the Blackest thing in the world, but it has funk on it. [I am] just trying to have a sincere moment where my passion for everyday things meets this company that is willing to make an investment in a big idea.'

The clay is gathered and worked across the American Midwest: Wisconsin, Indiana, North Carolina, then fired in a Japanese-style kiln built in Chicago. The resemblance to Tokoname is deliberate, achieved through a transfer of technique, not a fixation on origin. Gates describes this in terms that move well outside the studio, tracing a line through religious and intellectual histories where knowledge is carried and translated, accumulating as it moves.

It is tempting to treat that transfer as metaphor, though he resists it. 'The hand is the mind,' he says. 'People have worked really hard to separate physical labour from intellectual labour, but if you can put aside capitalism, you really unite the mind and the hand again. I know more because I’ve touched more.' The statement lands plainly in a room where the objects are not sealed off from contact, but welcome it instead.

The forms are specific and named: chawan, yunomi, guinomi, tokkuri, each carrying their own discipline. A chawan should be turned twice, clockwise, before it is brought to the mouth to preserve and respect the front of the object. The cabinet sits between the category of furniture and something closer to staging; around it, Gates introduces larger elements from his studio, forms that carry more weight than the vessels, which thicken the space.

Italian craftsmanship is present throughout without resolving into polish; Venetian plaster has been reworked with straw and a rougher aggregate, the finish feels as though it has been padded by many feet, even though it has only just been applied.

Behind the bowls, Gates points to a stack of Pelican cases – one in safety orange, another in military green – their moulded shells and pressure valves in direct contrast to a chawan, turned slowly, fired in a kiln tuned by hand. 'It makes total sense that my tea bowls will be in a pelican case. I’m merging a transfer of knowledge.'

Gates moves easily between the scale of a cup and that of a building, though he does not pretend they ask the same of him. 'Ideas trump scale,' he says. 'If you have a philosophy that’s clear enough, that aesthetic intention can be applied to the composition of things on this table, composition of this room, composition of this block.'

There is also the question of duration; the installation was timed to the week, yet its end is not fixed. In a wabi-sabi sense, Gates speaks of it without certainty, which feels consistent with the project’s underlying logic. A home, as he frames it, is not guaranteed by walls or ownership; you don’t know how long it will hold, or what brings it to a close.

'I had the problem of contemporary art versus retail store, craft versus conceptual practices, and I’ve tried my best through the cabinet to unify utility and beauty,' Gates says. At Prada Home, a chawan, turned and returned, sets the pace; in that waiting, something like a position on how knowledge is carried through the body becomes clear.

The new Prada Home permanent space is now open on Via Montenapoleone 6, Milan