Gates is an artist who knows as much about the intricacies of planning law as he does about the inside of a studio. His sculpture was the focal point of a survey that opened in May at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, materially derived from dilapidated architecture and the urban realm, and specifically informed by Freedmen’s Town in Houston’s Fourth Ward. With regards to the latter, Gates is advising an initiative that plans to preserve this historic neighbourhood built and shaped by Black people following emancipation: an endeavour that’s in the mould of the socially engaged mini-empire he has been building on the South Side of Chicago since 2006. Over in Tokyo, the artist’s Afro-Mingei exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, which imagined ‘the artistic possibilities of combining Black aesthetics and Japanese craft philosophies to envision hybrid-culture futures’, laid the groundwork for incense and sake collaborations with small family-owned businesses in Japan. This mix of commerce and creativity made him an obvious choice for Prada’s diversity council, where Gates has spearheaded a mentorship programme for designers of colour.