UMAR RASHID, US

Born 1976, Chicago, Illinois. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Using ink and acrylic on paper often stained with colonial products like tea and coffee, the artist employs the medium of drawing to illustrate alternative historical narratives. Much of his work centres around the “Frenglish Empire (1648-1880)” a semi-fictionalised amalgamation of the French and English colonial powers which encompassed large swathes of the planet over this time period. Rashid focuses on the stories and perspectives of people of colour, who have often been marginalized and omitted from the historical record. These reclaimed and reinvented narratives explore the intricacies of race, gender, class, and overall power in the colonial world. Maps, flags, diagrams, body art and various kinds of iconography form the visual language of these scenes, mixed in with contemporary and historical references to pop culture, hip hop and revolutionary movements, and often alluding to cosmology, religion and spirituality.

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