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Tariku Shiferaw

Marking Oneself in Dark Places

September 7 – October 21, 2023

Tariku Shiferaw Alkebulan, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 96 x 96 in (243.8 x 243.8 cm) (GL16088)

Tariku Shiferaw

Alkebulan, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

96 x 96 in (243.8 x 243.8 cm)

(GL16088)

Tariku Shiferaw  A Sign in Space, 2023 Acrylic on canvas Diptych; each: 72 x 72 in (182.9 x 182.9 cm) Overall: 72 x 144 in (182.9 x 365.8 cm) (GL16093)

Tariku Shiferaw

A Sign in Space, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
Diptych; each: 72 x 72 in (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
Overall: 72 x 144 in (182.9 x 365.8 cm)
(GL16093)

Tariku Shiferaw  A Sign in Space, 2023 Acrylic on canvas, chain link fence, ceramic, and sound Dimensions variable GL16093

Tariku Shiferaw

A Sign in Space, 2023
Acrylic on canvas, chain link fence, ceramic, and sound
Dimensions variable
(GL16093)

Tariku Shiferaw, Cosmic Egg, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 96 x 96 in (243.8 x 243.8 cm) (GL16089)

Tariku Shiferaw

Cosmic Egg, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

96 x 96 in (243.8 x 243.8 cm)

(GL16089)

Tariku Shiferaw Dogon Sun, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 96 x 96 in (243.8 x 243.8 cm) (GL16090)

Tariku Shiferaw

Dogon Sun, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

96 x 96 in (243.8 x 243.8 cm)

(GL16090)

Tariku Shiferaw The Dreaming, 2022 Acrylic and plastic on canvas 72 x 60 in (182.9 x 152.4 cm) (GL15939)

Tariku Shiferaw

The Dreaming, 2022

Acrylic and plastic on canvas

72 x 60 in (182.9 x 152.4 cm)

(GL15939)

Tariku Shiferaw Quiet As It’s Kept (Max Roach), 2023 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 60 in (182.9 x 152.4 cm) (GL15827)

Tariku Shiferaw

Quiet As It’s Kept (Max Roach), 2023

Acrylic on canvas

72 x 60 in (182.9 x 152.4 cm)

(GL15827)

Tariku Shiferaw No Agreement (Fela Kuti), 2020 Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), Mylar and iridescent film on canvas 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm) (GL15833)

Tariku Shiferaw

No Agreement (Fela Kuti), 2020

Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), Mylar and iridescent film on canvas

60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

(GL15833)

Tariku Shiferaw Zamina Mina - Zangaléwa (Golden Sounds), 2021 Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), Mylar and iridescent film on canvas 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm) (GL15834)

Tariku Shiferaw

Zamina Mina - Zangaléwa (Golden Sounds), 2021

Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), Mylar and iridescent film on canvas

60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

(GL15834)

Tariku Shiferaw Superstar (Ms. Lauryn Hill), 2023 Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), on iridescent film and canvas 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm) (GL16110)

Tariku Shiferaw

Superstar (Ms. Lauryn Hill), 2023

Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), on iridescent film and canvas

60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

(GL16110)

Tariku Shiferaw I Faram Gami I Faram (Mulatu Astatke), 2023 Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), on iridescent film and canvas 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm) (GL16111)

Tariku Shiferaw

I Faram Gami I Faram (Mulatu Astatke), 2023

Acrylic, poly-chiffon (& other silk materials), on iridescent film and canvas

60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

(GL16111)

Tariku Shiferaw Netela, 2022 Acrylic on canvas 48 x 48 in (121.9 x 121.9 cm) (GL15836)

Tariku Shiferaw

Netela, 2022

Acrylic on canvas

48 x 48 in (121.9 x 121.9 cm)

(GL15836)

Press Release

Click the above image to enter a 360 degree virtual tour of the gallery

Opening Thursday, September 7, 2023, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

 

Artist in conversation with Larry Ossei-Mensah: Saturday, September 23, 12:00pm

Galerie Lelong & Co., New York is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works in painting and installation by Tariku Shiferaw. The works on view will be from two of the artist’s ongoing series, One of These Black Boys and Mata Semay, in which Shiferaw engages his practice of cultural space-making through a confrontation of exclusionary Eurocentric systems of epistemic erasure. Shiferaw’s latest series, Mata Semay, Amharic for “night skies,” proposes a new mythology that imagines how the night sky would exist if diasporic cultural contributions were considered in the global consciousness. Shiferaw’s paintings reflect his ongoing commitment to process, with new works measuring over six feet and a selection of works with chiffon making their debut after years of experimentation with the textile. This exhibition coincides with the artist’s debut museum solo exhibition, Making Space: One of These Black Boys, at the Southampton African American Museum, New York.

The smaller gallery space will be transformed into a continuous night sky painted on panels of unstretched canvas with 24 ceramic sculptures in the center. An audio component emerges out of these sculptures: a sonic constellation composed of sounds representative of the African diaspora. This installation, A Sign in Space (2023), is part of the Mata Semay series and is a continuation

of the artist’s exploration of large-scale installation following A Strange Place to Cast Our Dreams (2022), which premiered at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, New York last summer. Shiferaw’s latest installation takes its title from Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics volume, a collection of linked short narratives of scientific theories on the inception and evolution of the universe. The story A Sign in Space chronicles the efforts of a primordial being to mark a spot in the vast expanse of the universe with a sign that denotes his presence.

In the main gallery, the works on view take on a dark-toned palette, with backgrounds of expressively painted deep blues and purples as a core component of their composition. In paintings from the Mata Semay series, these emotive backgrounds are punctuated by abstracted constellations and represent imagined versions of the night sky, evoking the mystical essence of the cosmos. In The Dreaming (2022), a large-scale painting from the series, Shiferaw juxtaposes this dream-like background with a repetitive grid pattern to address the futile concept of owning or controlling space.

In a selection of works from the One of These Black Boys series, a body of work addressing issues of systemic erasure, Shiferaw covers the canvas with mixed media including acrylic and iridescent film before shrouding them with layers of poly-chiffon. The layers of fabric fluctuate in opacity as the angle from which the work is viewed changes, centering the engagement of the viewer and prompting an inquiry into who is granted visibility in cultural spaces. As with all of the paintings in the One of These Black Boys series, the works are titled after songs from musical genres by artists of the African diaspora such as Hip-Hop, R&B, Reggae, Afrobeats, Blues, and Jazz, infusing the works with the cultural histories that these references carry.

Works by Shiferaw will on view in the travelling exhibition The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri from August 19, 2023 – January 1, 2024; in the exhibition States of Becoming, organized by Independent Curators International and on view at the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County from September 14 – December 9, 2023; and in the exhibition Spectrum: On Color & Contemporary Art on view at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco, California from September 27, 2023 – March 3, 2024.

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