Growing up, Gates quickly learned the value of working with his hands while helping his father with his roofing business. As an undergraduate student at Iowa State University, he took several ceramics classes, but majored in urban planning. He studied pottery in Tokoname, Japan in the late 1990s, noting that “I think that studying clay helped me understand that ugly things, muddy things, or things that are unformed are just waiting for the right set of hands.”1 In 2000, he took a position at the Chicago Transit Authority as an arts planner. 

Gates’s practice is informed by the use of salvaged materials and reinterpretation of histories. He incorporates pieces of clay, tar, and renovated buildings to transform elements of urban neighborhoods into community-driven spaces and sites of opportunity. He seeks out everyday objects with historical significance, imbuing them with elevated value and status. In 2010, he founded the Rebuild Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on neighborhood regeneration, community arts programming, and cultural development in Chicago. The foundation’s initiatives create hubs and archives for Black culture and facilitate discussions about race, equality, and history.

Gates received a BS and MS from Iowa State University, as well as an MA from the University of Cape Town. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Crystal Award (2020); Nasher Prize (2018); and Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Social Progress (2015). Gates’s work has been presented in Studio Museum exhibitions such as When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South (2014) and Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet, and Contemporary Art (2014).