umar “frohawk twofeathers” rashid
UMAR RASHID (FROHAWK TWO FEATHERS)
In 2003, after relocating from Chicago, IL (b. 1976), to Los Angeles, CA. I began to write and illustrate the history of the Frenglish Empire 1648- 1880 (a portmanteau of France and England ) based on the supposition that the historically antagonistic empires of France and England made a tenuous peace and unified into a single, gargantuan, colonial empire. The Frenglish Empire ruled over a large swath of the planet, often challenged by the historical, traditional empires of Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Prussia, Austria (and client states of the Holy Roman Empire), Russia, and the Ottomans.
However, the main focus of my work is the stories and reinvented histories of people of color, who are oftentimes marginalized and omitted from the historical record, and the intricacies of race, gender, class, and overall power in the colonial world. In the process of writing and illustrating this history, I’ve created alternative narratives that reference the main narrative and focuses on the cosmologies of the empires, with a focus on religion and spirituality. And the common thread throughout the work (aside from the written narrative) employs iconography as a place marker between past, present, and future. This element is realized in the oeuvre in the “Imperial Tattoo System” (a classifying mechanism I use to define and differentiate the characters in the story) and within the maps, and cosmological diagrams.
The narrative is also massively informed by the hip hop culture of my youth (golden age), various (modern and ancient) pop culture references, gang and prison culture, and revolutionary movements throughout time. -Umar Rashid
On Umar’s Work...
His portraits, drawings, flags, maps, battle scenes, and other artifacts continue the long history of Frengland—an ongoing project Rashid began working on in 2006. In Rashid’s history, the dates of the Frenglish Empire (1658-1880) roughly correspond to the actual English Civil War and the abolition of slavery in Brazil respectively. Fourteen years in the making and spanning almost 140 years of Frenglish time, Rashid’s global empire has developed a complex, global history, much like the trajectory of actual colonial enterprises. Similarly, his work references a panoply of cultures that collapses geography and time. Stylistically, Rashid alludes to Egyptian hieroglyphs, Native American hide paintings and ledger art, Persian miniature painting, and illustrated Spanish colonial manuscripts to name but a few. Rashid’s compelling cast of characters are diverse and often of mixed race and ethnicity. His world is not guided by simplistic dichotomies of white and black, master and slave, captor and captive, but challenges viewers to consider the range of humanity involved in a global empire. Thus, his people of color are just as likely to be heroes as villains, revealing the duplicity and complicity of these individuals but also acknowledging their agency as historical actors. The lengthy, sometimes humorous, titles of Rashid’s works often reference hip-hop song lyrics, urban expressions, and current events. The artist intentionally strives to bridge the gap between contemporary popular culture and “official” history, which often seems like a distant, untouchable past especially for many young people today. By making history relatable, Rashid reminds us of the cyclical nature of history and universality of the human condition. -Ellen Caldwell
UMAR RASHID - Curriculum Vitae
Education
2000
BA, Southern Illinois University At Carbondale, Carbondale, IL
Solo Exhibitions
2019
The world you know is a fiction. (You know we had to do a remix right?) Vincent Price Art Museum
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
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 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
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, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Miami, FL
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
2019
PUNCH 2, Jeffery Deitch, Los Angeles
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, Idaho.
Cape Town Art Fair (Tyburn Gallery), Cape Town, South Africa.
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 (HOUSINGNY Gallery), Miami, Florida
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
Bibliography
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. p.134 -139, Art In America
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. (2008,June). Flaunt Magazine
Artistic Vision (paintings reproduced). (2008, March). Marie Claire Magazine
2007
Myers, Holly. A chapter from colonial times. (2008, February 29). Los Angeles Times
New American Paintings No. 73, juried by Alma Ruiz. MOCA Los Angeles, Fall, 2007
2006
Nys Dambrot, Shana. Review. (2006, November). Art Ltd
Muchnic, Suzanne. The ArtExplosion. (2006 September), Los Angeles Times
Nys Dambrot, Shana. Preview. (2006, September). Flavorpill L.A. , #184.
2004
Two Feathers, Frohawk. (2004). The Hunter and the Teardrop (Self Published)
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