On the Cover

Alumni Magazine Issue 37's cover features Unity, a 22-foot tall bronze sculpture by alumni Hank Willis Thomas

Our cover showcases Unity, a 22-foot-tall bronze sculpture by artist Hank Willis Thomas (TSOA ’98), which rises near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and was partly inspired by the Statue of Liberty. “Most of the public art we grew up around was White men on horses looking down on us,” Thomas has said. “The question of the day is, how do we imagine new public art?” This work and The Embrace (2022), pictured in our feature story, are two of the ways Thomas has answered his own query. Thomas’s work has been exhibited widely both domestically and internationally, and he has pieces in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, the High Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. See more of his work at https://www.hankwillisthomas.com.


Photo of Hank Willis Thomas (TSOA ’98)

Hank Willis Thomas (TSOA ’98)

About the Magazine

New York University Alumni Magazine is published thrice yearly by New York University. Contents copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. No responsibility will be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts and artwork. Bylined articles reflect the viewpoints of individual writers and are not to be construed as expression of official university policy.

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Contact Us

Email the editor: alumni.magazine@nyu.edu


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