Umar Rashid - Frohawk Two Feathers - was born in 1976 in Chicago, Illinois. Omniscient narrator of a fictitious-real world, Umar Rashid has been documenting and narrating for more than fifteen years the chronicles of a conquering imperialism: that of the Frenchness empire. He questions the places of emanation of historical discourses to better highlight the existence of official narratives and the way they bury competing narratives. By exploring the violent and bloody origins of places and names, he questions notions of class, power and gender as well as the way conflicts are inherited. Distanced by time but reunited in the painting, the events he makes happen weave constellations and thus highlight the transparencies of history, its repetition over time, the way its strata are superimposed. Moments of battle and encounter where soldiers, deities, slaves, notables and pop stars mingle, sometimes take on the air of celebration, but the bugles sound and the gunpowder speaks and each scene is indeed the representation of a confrontation that explores our past while trying to anticipate future events.
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2000
BA, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, United States
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2023
“Thinking Historically in the Present”, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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2023
“The Undiscovered Genius of the Niger Delta. An Unexpected Journey Into Chaos Told From The Perspective Of Someone Who Wasn’t There. 1799”, Tiwani Contemporary in collaboration with G.A.S, Lagos, Nigeria
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2022
“Ancien Regime Change 4, 5, and 6”, MoMA PS1, New York, United States
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2022
“Ancien Regime Change 3: The men who sold the world”, Cokkie Snoei Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
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2022
“Ancien Regime Change 2. En Germinal: Les Printemps de Guerre”, Almine Rech, Paris, France
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2021
“En Garde / On God, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA Ancien Régime Change : Part One Can You Dig It? A Dirge for Cyrus and His Band of Warriors”, Half Gallery, New York, NY Culinarialism, Cultural DC’s Mobile Art Gallery, Sandlot Southeast, Washington D.C. , United States
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2020
“Money over everything. Power before anything. It blows my mind, but it’s like that. The life of Ambroos Van Peere. A tragicomedy. Dutch Guiana, 1793.”, Cokkie Snoei Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands In the Court of The Crimson Queen or White Woman on a Horse, Tiwani Contemporary, London, United Kingdom
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2018
“What is the Color When Black is Burned? (The Gold War Part 1)”, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, United States
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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 Gallery, New York, NY The Belhaven Republic (A Delta Blues)”, University of Memphis Art Gallery, Memphis, United States
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2016
“That Ain’t Gold, That’s a Soul”, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
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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
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2014
“MATRIX 170: On Errythang (On Everything)”, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT Heartbreaking and Shit, But that’s the Globe: The Battle of Manhattan, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, United States
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2013
“We Don’t Need No Water (Les Temps de la Chevauchee’)”, Narwhal Projects, Toronto, 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 New Jersey, Summit, NJ; traveled to the Wellin Museum, Hamilton College, Clinton, United States
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2012
“All Gold Everything, An Elegy”, Taylor De Cordoba Gallery, 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, United States
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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, United States
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2009
“New Work”, Galerie Emmanuel Post, Leipzig, Germany
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2008
“In the Court of the Crimson King”, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, United States
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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, United States
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2023
“Collection of Rarities”, Bomma, Paris, France
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2022
“Chronicles 4”, Kpm Berlin, Galerie Droste, Berlin, Germany
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2022
20 (‘What Now?’) (67 Great Titchfield St.), PM/AM, London, United Kingdom
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2022
“Grand Opening”, Galerie Droste, Paris, France
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2022
“Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined”, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, United States
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2021
“Resting Point of Accommodation”, organized with Bill Powers, Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
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2020
“Made in L.A : A Version”, Hammer Museum and the Huntington Library, ArtMuseum, and Botanical Gardens, Los Angeles, United States
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2020
“All the Days and Nights”, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, United Kingdom
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2019
“30 Years of Dutch Courage”, Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, Netherlands
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2019
“The Fate of Empires”, Studio d’Arte Raffaeli, Trento, Italy
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2019
“Reimagining Colonial History”, Sun Valley Art Center, Sun Valley, United States
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2019
“Forever, a Moment: Black Meditations on Time and Space!”, SOMA Arts, San Francisco, United States
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2019
“Personal Truth”, El Camino College Museum of Art, Torrance, United States
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2019
“Serpentine Fire”, Quotidian Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
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2019
“191919191919”, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
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2018
“Here“, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
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2018
“Cosmic Traffic Jam”, Zevitas Marcus Gallery, Culver City, United States
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2018
“The Eye Sees Not Itself”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
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2018
“Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation”, 21C Museum, Louisville, United States
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2017
“Our Moment Is Here”, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa
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2017
“Unsettled”, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, United States
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2016
“Summer Fling : The Barn Show“, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Southampton, United States
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2015
“A Primitive Future, Subliminal Projects”, Echo Park, United States
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2015
“Voces”, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, United States
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2014
“Attunement”, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, United States
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2014
“Uncertain Terms”, What If the World Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
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2014
“Based on a True Story“: Duke Riley and Frohawk Two Feathers, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, United States
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2014
“Ritual and Residue: The Art of Drink”, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, United States
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2013
“Good Intentions: Re-Imagining Rockwell’s Boy Scouts”, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, United States
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2013
“June Group Show”, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, United States
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2013
“Rocky Mountain High”, Gildar Gallery, Denver, United States
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2013
“Seat’s Taken”, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, United States
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2013
“In Case We Don’t Die”, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, United States
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2010
“Stranger Than Fiction”, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, United States
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2010
“Opening Ceremony”, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, United States
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2010
“Else”, Tilton Gallery, New York, United States
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2005
“Permafrost”, Ghettogloss Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
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2022
“Tout en tout est un, The Power Coupling, A conduit for progress, good or bad. Or, Twoism (after Boards of Canada)“, bronze sculpture, Droste and Bomma, France
The Battle of Malibu (In Three Parts) 1795: Part One, See battle. Little red corvette; Part Two, The death of Father Wiyot. If we can do this to a god, imagine what we’ll do to you; Part three, Surfriders vs the Jaguars from Mars (triptych), (detail), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 182,9 × 213,4 cm, courtesy of Umar Rashid & Hammer Museum
The siege of Santa Monica from the bay. Viewing party in the Palisades Or, when Megatron shows up, expect the worst. The little red corvette battle ship of the Imperial Spanish Navy, sails into Santa Monica Bay and destroys the statue of Calafia and a few other monuments. Meanwhile, the Company Cazador is planning to assault via land from the Palisades but are interrupted by a rowdy outing and an assassination attempt. Black and White Jesus shielded their eyes in the Trans-Am., 2021, acrylic and mica flake on canvas, 182 × 182 cm, photo: Josh Schaedel, © Umar Rashid, Courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe Gallery
Go Home, 2019, acrylic and ink on wood, 33 × 27,9 × 5,1 cm, courtesy of the artist and New Image Art
The Battle of Coachella Part 1. Day 1. The Triumvirate turn against their former comrades in a daring daylight raid, goaded on by misinformation with new conversion therapists sent from a crippled mission control. Mariachis play a dirge at the end, 2021, acrylic and mica flake on canvas, 182 × 182 cm, photo: Josh Schaedel, © Umar Rashid, courtesy the artist and Blum & Poe Gallery
Incident at lover’s cove. Black women don’t have to get ready because they stay ready. Or, the viceroy’s army tracks the rebels to a secluded area but are still bested by bonnet-wearing women. The men didn’t get one shot off., 2021, acrylic and mica flake on canvas, 183 × 183 cm, courtesy of the artist and Tiwani Contemporary
Ann Greene Kelly, Untitled (foreground), 2020, Umar Rashid, The Battle of Malibu (In Three Parts) 1795: Part One, See battle. Little red corvette; Part Two, The death of Father Wiyot. If we can do this to a god, imagine what we’ll do to you; Part three, Surfriders vs the Jaguars from Mars (triptych) (background), 2020, installation view, Hammer Museum, installation view, Made in L.A. 2020: a version, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, photo: Paul Forney
Harlem Carl, commander of the desperate, and saint of the domestic, 2022, acrylic and ink on panel, 121,9 × 121,9 cm, Louise, equestrian commander of the Free Forces of Lapita Prime. The crow that flies, 2022, acrylic and ink on panel, 121,9 × 121,9 cm, © Umar Rashid, courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech, photo: Nicolas Brasseur
Live free or Dior. Bathe in lava, colonizer! Lapita prime, 2022, acrylic and ink on canvas, 182,9 × 182,9 cm, An incitend at Lover’s Cove part 2. Manman Dlo is not for the bullshit and thus, your ending, 2022, acrylic and ink on canvas, 182,9 × 182,9 cm, © Umar Rashid, Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech, Photo: Nicolas Brasseur