Image: Hank Willis Thomas, Kama Mama, Kama Binti (Like Mother, Like Daughter), 1971/2008, from Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America, edition 4/5, 2008. Digital chromogenic print. Collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. © HWT
The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University opens 'Hank Willis Thomas: LOVERULES — From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation' on 17 September 2026, running to 20 December in the Voorhees Gallery at 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The exhibition is organised by the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington and curated by Shamim M. Momin, director and chief curator of The Bronx Museum; the Zimmerli is a tour venue.
It gathers nearly 90 works by Thomas, who was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1976, surveying his best-known pieces across a range of media. The museum frames the selection around how images shape perception, identity and values, and around the connections Thomas draws between historical moments of resistance and the present.
Works listed in the museum's preview come from the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and from Jordan D. Schnitzer's own collection. They include 'Kama Mama, Kama Binti (Like Mother, Like Daughter)', 1971/2008, from the series 'Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America'; 'Scarred Chest', 2003, from 'B®anded'; 'I Am Your Man', 2012, in Liquitex on canvas; 'But she has other important uses as well', 1944/2015, from 'Unbranded: A Century of White Women'; the retroreflective vinyl work 'An All Colored Cast', 2019; and the mixed-media 'At the twilight's last gleaming?', 2021.
The Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation is lead sponsor. The New Brunswick presentation is supported by donors to the Zimmerli's Major Exhibition Fund — Kathrin and James Bergin, Sundaa and Randy Jones, Heena and Hemanshu Pandya, and Mark L. Pomerantz — and bilingual interpretation is funded through the Art Bridges Foundation's Access for All program.
A conversation between Thomas and Schnitzer, whom the museum describes as an 'ARTnews Top 200 Collector', takes place on Thursday 17 September from 5 to 8 p.m., followed by a reception for all the new exhibitions. Thomas has a second show at the museum, 'Hank Willis Thomas Selects the NJ Arts Annual', on the same dates, and both open alongside 'The Beast of Joy: Women Artists from Soviet Republics' (2 September 2026 to 18 July 2027) and 'Japan In/Out of View' (9 September 2026 to 14 February 2027).
The Zimmerli was closed to the public through August while the autumn exhibitions were installed; its offices reopen on 1 September and the galleries on 2 September. Admission is free and no tickets are required. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, with the museum closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
