Art World Power Couple Champions Inclusivity “`

Rujeko Hockley and Hank Willis Thomas first connected via email in 2005, when Hockley, a curatorial assistant, contacted Thomas regarding exhibition logistics. Their relationship developed in 2013 through a mutual friend. 

Now a prominent art world couple, they both champion racial equity. Hockley, 41, is an associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Thomas, 48, is an artist whose work includes the unveiled in Boston in 2023. 

Thomas aims to “re-right-ing” history through his art, highlighting overlooked Black Americans. He’s developing “The Writing on the Wall,” using inmates’ writings and drawings to link mass incarceration to slavery’s legacy. This year, he plans to unveil a memorial for enslaved Davidson College builders and his gun-violence victims’ memorial travels to Detroit. Regarding race relations, he notes, “We’re not living in the 1950s and ‘60s where we’re trying to destroy Jim Crow. We’re trying to not go back.”

Hockley emphasizes welcoming non-white individuals to “institutions that were not built for them.” At the Brooklyn Museum, she co-curated “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85.” Following her curation of an Ethiopian American artist’s show at the Whitney in 2021, the artist joined the museum’s board, collaborating with another trustee to establish free admission for under-25s in 2024. Hockley anticipates increased Black attendance at the Whitney’s April 9th opening of SF MOMA’s survey of ‘s work, given the artist’s renown for her . 

Their mutual influence is evident. Hockley, who co-curated the 2019 Whitney Biennial, draws artistic inspiration from her husband, while offering feedback on his exhibition layouts. During a virtual interview, Hockley explained her focus on exhibits promoting understanding of “the subjective experience of other human beings,” prompting Thomas, in his studio, to declare an “epiphany.” He began cutting out faces from mid-20th century portraits of ordinary Black Americans, while Hockley observed, “Black and Brown people have insight into the subjectivity of white people much more than white people have subjectivity into our experiences.” 

Thomas’s plans for the faces remain undefined, yet Hockley isn’t surprised by this creative spark. “Artists’ brains are just constantly seeing connections,” she explains. Concluding the interview, Thomas stated: “The road to progress is always under construction.”