Addis Fine Art announced its participation in Frieze New York 2020 for the first time, presenting new works by New York based artist, Tariku Shiferaw.
Frieze New York is distinguished from the other international art fairs through innovative and rigorous programming and focused high-quality gallery presentations that act as extensions of gallery exhibitions.
Shiferaw’s (b.1983) ongoing series “One of These Black Boys”, explores painting and societal structures through mark-making. Taking the names of songs from Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz, Blues, and Reggae music, Shiferaw makes paintings that embody the experiences and struggles expressed through music by Black artists and composers. He often explores a spectrum of topics ranging from the notion of Black bodies in a white social construct to the popular idioms of romance, sex, and daily life – existence.
Shiferaw studied for his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) at the University of Southern California (USC) in 2007 and later attained his MFA at Parsons The New School for Design in 2015. Shiferaw’s current exhibitions include “Men of Change” – a three-year nationally traveling exhibition with the Smithsonian Institution, as well as “Unbound”, a group exhibition at the Zuckerman Museum of Art.
Shiferaw has exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and The Drawing Center. In 2017, he had his first international solo show titled, Erase Me, at Addis Fine Art, London. In 2018, he presented his largest installation work to date in a solo exhibition titled, This Ain’t Safe, at Cathouse Proper, in Brooklyn.
Shiferaw participated in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art (studio), in Open Sessions at the Drawing Center, and he was artist-in-residence at the LES Studio Program in New York City. In 2020, he will partake in an artist residency at the World Trade Center through Silver Art Projects.
