STATEMENT
Within his artistic practice, Umar Rashid blends fictional and real histories, while freely traversing both time and world geography. Rich with detail, Rashid’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures reference colonialism, empire, and westward expansion in the Americas during the 18th century, remixing global players – African, European, and indigenous peoples – in a process of storytelling and mythmaking. By reworking the historic projects of colonization, war, and the making of nation-states, Rashid creates alternate narratives, scripting a different past for human history – one that intersects with the present and forecasts new futures.
EDUCATION
2000, Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Photography, Southern Illinois University At Carbondale, Carbondale, IL, USA.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
What is the color when black is burned? (The Gold War Part 1), The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ, USA.
2017
The Free Radicals, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA.
The Messier Objects. (You Get the Gods You Deserve), Part 3 of The Americas 1795, Johannes Vogt, New York, NY, USA.
The Belhaven Republic (A Delta Blues), University of Memphis, Galleries A and B, Memphis, TN, USA.
2016
That Ain’t Gold, That’s a Soul, New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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, USA.
2014
MATRIX 170: On Errythang (On Everything), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, USA.
Heartbreaking and Shit, But that’s the Globe: The Battle of Manhattan, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY, USA.
2013
We Don’t Need No Water (Les Temps de la Chevauchee), 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, USA.
You Can Fall: The War of The Mourning Arrows, Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ, USA., and the Wellin Museum, Hamilton, College, Clinton, NY, USA.
2012
All Gold Everything, An Elegy, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
We Buy Gold, We Buy Everything, We Sell Souls, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO, USA.
Every Winter Was A War, She Said, Heiner Contemporary Washington, D.C., USA.
It’s Yours: Wars of the Frenglish Revolution and Other Conflicts (1792-1797), Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY, USA.
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, USA.
2009
Frohawk Two Feathers @ Scenic curated by Simon Watson & Craig Hensala, New York, NY, USA.
New Work, Galerie Emmanuel Post, Leipzig, Germany.
2008
In the Court of The Crimson King, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2006
Last Night, After the Lights Went Out, We Fell, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
25 Bold Moves, curated by Simon Watson & Craig Hensala, House of Campari, Venice, CA, USA.
The Easter Seal, Bent Gallery, South Pasadena, CA, USA.
You and Me, Unitard Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019
30 Years of Dutch Courage, Galerie Cokkie Snoei Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The Fate of Empires, Studio d Arte Raffaeli, Trento, Italy.
Reimagining Colonial History, Sun Valley Art Center, Sun Valley, ID, USA.
Forever, A Moment: Black Meditations on Time And Space!, SOMA Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Personal Truth, El Camino College Museum of Art, Torrance, CA, USA.
Serpentine Fire, Quotidian. Los Angeles, CA, USA.
191919191919, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2018
Here, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Cosmic Traffic Jam, Zevitas Marcus Gallery, Culver City, CA, USA.
The Eye Sees Not Itself, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation, 21C Museum Hotel, Louisville, KY, USA.
2017
Our Moment Is Here, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa.
Unsettled, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, USA.
2016
Summer Fling The Barn Show, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Southampton, NY, USA.
2015
A Primitive Future, Subliminal Projects, Echo Park, CA, USA.
Voces, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2014
Attunement, The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Uncertain Terms, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
Based on a True Story: Duke Riley and Frohawk Two Feathers, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Ritual and Residue: The Art of Drink, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY, USA.
2013
Good Intentions: Re-Imagining Rockwell’s Boy Scouts, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
June Group Show, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Rocky Mountain High, Gildar Gallery, Denver, CO, USA.
Seat’s Taken, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, VT, USA.
In Case We Don’t Die, Torrance Art Museum Torrance, CA Torrance, CA, USA.
2010
Stranger Than Fiction, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Opening Ceremony, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY, USA.
Else, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY, USA.
2007
Basel, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Basel, Switzerland.
Artforum Berlin, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
2005
Permafrost at Ghettogloss, Ghettogloss Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
COLLECTIONS
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), South Africa.
The Brooklyn Museum, USA.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, USA.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, USA.
The Hudson River Museum, USA.
Nevada Museum of Art, USA.
Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, USA.
Conseil Regional de la Guadeloupe, Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles.
The Mount Holyoke Art Museum, USA.
21C Museum Hotels, USA.
The Progressive Collection, USA.
The Artist Pension Trust.
Jorge Perez Collection, USA.
