The artist’s world is not guided by simplistic dichotomies of white and black, master and slave, captor and captive, but challenges viewers to consider the range of humanity involved in a global empire.
Umar Rashid nasce a Chicago, Illinois, nel 1976 e attualmente vive e lavora a Los Angeles.
Utilizzando inchiostro e acrilico su carta spesso impregnata di prodotti come tè e caffè, l'artista impiega il disegno per illustrare narrazioni storiche alternative. Gran parte del suo lavoro è incentrato sull '"Impero francese (1648-1880)", una fusione semi-romanzata delle potenze coloniali francese e inglese che al tempo sotto il proprio dominio contava vaste aree del pianeta. Rashid si concentra sulle storie e le prospettive delle persone di colore, che sono state spesso emarginate e omesse dalla documentazione storica. Queste narrazioni recuperate e reinventate esplorano le complessità di razza, genere, classe e potere generale nel mondo coloniale. Mappe, bandiere, diagrammi, body art e vari tipi di iconografia costituiscono il linguaggio visivo di queste scene, mescolato a riferimenti contemporanei e storici alla cultura pop, all'hip hop e ai movimenti rivoluzionari, e spesso alludendo alla cosmologia, alla religione e alla spiritualità.
Education
2000: BA, Southern Illinois University At Carbondale, Carbondale, IL
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Umar Rashid: The Undiscovered Genius Of The Niger Delta, Tiwani Contemporary Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
2022
Spotlight: Umar Rashid, FLAG Art Foundation, New York City, NY, United States
Umar Rashid: Ancien Regime Change 4, 5, and 6, MoMA PS1, New York City, NY, United States
Frohawk Two Feathers: Ancien Regime Change part 3 - The men who sold the world, Cokkie Snoei Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Umar Rashid: Ancien Regime Change Part 2, Almine Rech, Paris, France
2021
Art Basel Miami Beach, Booth N24, Tiwani Contemporary
Ancien Regime Change: Part One, Can You Dig It?, A Dirge For Cyrus And His Band Of Warriors, Half Gallery, New York, USA
PER CAPITA, Transformative Arts, Los Angeles, USA
En Garde / On God, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA
2020
In the Court of the Crimson Queen or White Lady on a Horse, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK
2018
What Is the Color when Black Is Burned? (The Gold War Part 1), The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson AZ
2017
The Free Radicals, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Messier Objects. (You Get the Gods You Deserve). Part 3 of The Americas 1795, Johannes Vogt, New York, NY
The Belhaven Republic (A Delta Blues), University of Memphis – Galleries A and B, Memphis, TN
2016
That Ain’t Gold, That’s a Soul, New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA
2015
Rampjaar. #tbt to that time when we didn’t let xenophobia get in the way of some sweet, motherfucking payback. 1789, Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Kill Your Best Ideas, The Battle for New York and Its Lifeline, the Hudson River, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
2014
MATRIX 170: On Errythang (On Everything), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Solo presentation, Volta Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland.
Heartbreaking and Shit, But that’s the Globe: The Battle Of Manhattan, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
2013
We Don’t Need No Water (Les Temps de la Chevaucheé), Narwhal Projects, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
And Those Figures Through The Leaves. And The Light Through That Smoke, Part Two to the Americas, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
You Can Fall: The War of The Mourning Arrows, Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ, (also traveled to the Wellin Museum, Hamilton, College, Clinton, NY)
2012
All Gold Everything, An Elegy, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA
We Buy Gold, We Buy Everything, We Sell Souls, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO Every Winter Was A War, She Said, Heiner Contemporary Washington, D.C.
It’s Yours: Wars of the Frenglish Revolution and Other Conflicts (1792-1797), Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
2011
The Edge of the Earth Isn’t Far From Here, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa La Guerre De Machettes Danseuses (The War Of The Dancing Machetes), Crocodile Company, Part 1, Taylor De Cordoba Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010
The Wolf and Hawk War, PULSE Miami, Solo booth, Miami, FL, with Morgan Lehman Gallery
2009
Frohawk Two Feathers @ Scenic, curated by Simon Watson & Craig Hensala, New York, NY
New Work, Galerie Emmanuel Post, Leipzig, Germany
2008
In The Court Of The Crimson King, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA
2006
Last Night, After the Lights Went Out, We Fell, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA
25 Bold Moves, curated by Simon Watson & Craig Hensala, House of Campari, Venice, CA
The Easter Seal, Bent Gallery, South Pasadena, CA
You and Me, Unitard Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibitions
2023
Joan Didion: What She Means, Perez Art Muse
Monsieur Zohore: My Condolences, M+B, Los Angeles, CA, United States
2022
Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, United States
Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Dialogues Across Disciplines, Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, NY, United States
2021
Black American Portraits, LACMA, Los Angeles, USA.
By any means, V.O Curations, London, UK
High Voltage Two, Nassima Landau, Tel Aviv
2020
Made in L.A. 2020: a version, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
All the Days and Nights, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK.
2019
30 Years of Dutch Courage, Galerie Cokkie Snoei Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Fate of Empires, Studio d’Arte Raffaelli, Trento, Italy
Reimagining Colonial History, Sun Valley Art Center, Sun Valley, Idaho
Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa, with Tyburn Gallery
Forever, A Moment: Black Meditations on Time And Space!, SOMA Arts. San Francisco, CA Personal Truth, El Camino College Museum of Art, Torrance, CA
Serpentine Fire Quotidian, Los Angeles, CA.
191919191919, New Image Art Gallery. Los Angeles, CA
2018
Nada Art Fair, Miami, Florida, with Housing NY Gallery
Here, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Cosmic Traffic Jam (co-curated), Zevitas Marcus Gallery, Culver City, CA.
The Eye Sees Not Itself, Nicodim Gallery. Los Angeles, CA.
Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation, 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
2017
Our Moment Is Here, Zeitz Mocaa, Cape Town, South Africa
Unsettled (traveling exhibition), Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada
2016
Summer Fling The Barn Show, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Southampton, NY
2015
A Primitive Future, Subliminal Projects, Echo Park, CA Voces, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA
2014
Attunement, The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Uncertain Terms, What If The World Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Based on a True Story: Duke Riley and Frohawk Two Feathers, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
Ritual and Residue: The Art of Drink, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY
2013
Good Intentions: Re-Imagining Rockwell’s Boy Scouts, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, CA June Group Show, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Rocky Mountain High, Gildar Gallery, Denver, CO
Seat’s Taken, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, VT
In Case We Don’t Die, Torrance Art Museum
2010
Stranger Than Fiction, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Opening Ceremony, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
Else, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
2007
Basel, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Basel, Switzerland Artforum Berlin, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2005
Permafrost At Ghettogloss, Ghettogloss Gallery, Los Angeles
Publications
2018
Caldwell, Ellen C., Umar Rashid’s What is the Color, When Black is Burned?, Riot Material Magazine
2017
Pierrot, Gregory, To Be the Other of an Other: An Encounter with Frohawk Two Feathers, ASAP/Journal
2015
Kill Your Best Ideas, Published by The Hudson River Museum
Konermann, Alyssa. On view: Based On A True Story at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati Magazine
Seda-Reeder, Maria, Truth Telling: Duke Riley and Frohawk Two Feathers at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art
2014
Dunne, Susanne, Artist Re-imagines Hartford, World History. The Hartford Courant Pflaumer, Barbara, Artists Drinking Beer, Foreground Magazine (Summer)
2013
You Can Fall. The War of the Mourning Arrows, published by The Visual Art Center of New Jersey and The Wellin Museum.
2011
Duncan, Michael, Soul Searching In The U.S.A., Art In America, pp.134-139. Yorio, Erika, Frohawk Two Feathers (February 2011), Antennae Magazine
The Edge of the Earth Isn’t Far from Here, Stevenson Gallery
2010
Cotter, Holland, Else, Art in Review (2010 September), The New York Times
Frohawk Two Feathers, Catalog, Morgan Lehman Gallery
2008
The Rise and Fall of The Frenglish Empire, Part Four, Flaunt Magazine (2008, June)
Artistic Vision (paintings reproduced), Marie Claire Magazine (2008, March)
2007
Myers, Holly. A chapter from colonial times, Los Angeles Times (2008, February 29)
New American Paintings No. 73, juried by Alma Ruiz, MOCA Los Angeles (Fall, 2007)
2006
Nys Dambrot, Shana, Review, Art Ltd (2006, November)
Muchnic, Suzanne, The ArtExplosion, Los Angeles Times (2006 September)
Nys Dambrot, Shana, Preview. Flavorpill L.A. , #184 (2006, September)
2004
Two Feathers, Frohawk, The Hunter and the Teardrop (Self Published)
Permanent Collections
Zeitz Mocaa
Jorge Perez Collection
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
The Hudson River Museum
Nevada Museum of Art
Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College Conseil Regional de la Guadeloupe
The Brooklyn Museum
The Mount Holyoke Art Museum
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art
21C Museum
The Progressive Collection
The Artist Pension Trust
Interviews, Posted on 12/05/2020
#ArtistWor(l)d: 5 domande a Umar Rashid e a Andrew Gilbert durante il lockdown
Read moreEvents, Posted on 08/02/2020
Torna dal 13 al 16 febbraio 2020 l’appuntamento di Cellar con la fiera d’arte contemporanea più importante del continente africano, sviluppando tre sezioni tematiche in collaborazione con lo Studio d’Arte Raffaelli.
Read moreEvents, Posted on 08/04/2019
Giovedì 4 aprile ha inaugurato nelle due sedi Cellar Contemporary e Studio d'Arte Raffaelli la mostra che vede protagonisti gli artisti Andrew Gilbert, Jarmila Mitríková & Dávid Demjanovič e Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers)
Read more© 2024
Cellar Contemporary
by Davide Raffaelli
P.IVA: 02438320224