Almine Rech is pleased to announce the representation in Europe and China of Chicago-born artist Umar Rashid, also known as Frohawk Two Feathers, following his first solo exhibition at Almine Rech Paris.

Almine Rech will feature Umar Rashid's works in Paris+ 2022 and Art Basel Miami 2022. His next solo presentation with the gallery will be in Brussels in 2023. His work will also be featured in a solo exhibition at MoMA PS1 from September 22, 2022 to March 13, 2023.

Having pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Photography from the Southern Illinois University of Carbondale, he developed his own visual language with a focus on history and storytelling. The countless motifs and symbols present in his work transcend culture and make for a playful reading where viewers can interpret many different meanings.

Rashid finds inspiration in everything that surrounds him – from old illuminated manuscripts, Native American ledger drawings, primitive art paintings, Mughal Persian miniature paintings, Indonesian Batik, Hmong story cloth, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian Babylonian cuneiform, Roman mosaics, Greek black-line pottery, and Japanese woodblock prints to African sculpture.

Though mostly using mediums like ink and acrylic, Rashid doesn’t shy away from atypical materials such as tea and coffee, allowing him to make original connections between contemporary culture and colonialism.. As a self-taught artist, he has developed a freedom of expression that has evolved with his painting, avoiding the constrictions of academic artistic education.

Many of Rashid's works have a political commentary anchored in the darker side of history, but Rashid lightheartedly proposes alternative narratives and plays upon power dynamics. Residing somewhere between humor and protest, his works evoke awareness of the majority of individuals whose stories and lives have been erased from history. There is seemingly no hierarchy in his works, and this creates an omnipresent camaraderie that brings both light and joy to his art.

His works can be seen in many museum collections including the Brooklyn Museum, Hudson River Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.

He has exhibited internationally, most recently at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Rashid lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Umar Rashid, An incident at Lover’s Cove part 2. Manman Dlo is not for the bullshit and thus, your ending, 2022 - Acrylic and ink on canvas, 1182.9 x 182.9 cm, 72 x 72 in / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech © Umar Rashid - Photo: Josh Schaedel

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