Reimagining the Black figure’s place in history, the present, and the future, Gatson’s work also evokes Afrofuturism.
[2] Beacons, was exhibited in 167 St. Station,[10][2] and the eight portraits celebrated iconic African-American and Latino figures;[10][2] those who were depicted included Tito Puente, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Audre Lorde, Celia Cruz, James Baldwin, Reggie Jackson, Maya Angelou, and Gil Scott-Heron.
[6] The geometric lines that primarily use the Pan-African colors, red, green, and black allude to beams of light, emphasizing the beauty and pride that is associated with the cultural figures.
[9] The focus of the exhibition was a short video that played footage of Black Panthers members Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver responding to the injustice of their son, Bobby Hutton's death.
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, Icons, 2017 Studio 10, Brooklyn, New York, Rico Gatson: When She Speaks, 2014 Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, The Promise of Light, 2013 Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN, African Fractals, 2006 Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, MN, Rico Gatson: Recent Works, 2003 The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA, Masking: Rico Gatson (Kindred) And Andres Serrano (Klansman), 2002 Pierogi 2000, Brooklyn, NY, Home Sweet Home, 1999 Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria, New, New York, 2013 The Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, The Jewel Thief, 2011 Cynthia Broan Gallery, New York, NY, System Failure, 2007 The Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA, Black Belt, December 11, 2005, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, Black Belt, 2004 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, Current Undercurrent:Working in Brooklyn, 1998[12][8][13][14]