Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers): Culinarialism
24 September – 21 November 2021
Presented by CulturalDC
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PRESS RELEASE
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS DROPBOX FOLDER OF HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES
See below checklist for artwork captions.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW CHECKLIST OF WORKS ON VIEW
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL WALK-THROUGH
Imbued with Afro-Futuristic folklore and anachronistic pop culture references such as basketball and Hennessy, Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers)’ new installment of his fictional, Colonial Era universe depicts a fête of global dignitaries whose arrival feast is interrupted by an uprising led by enslaved people.
The thematic focus of the exhibition is historical and contemporary class dynamics of food. Taking place in 1794, the show uses the narrative framework of a ritzy dinner party attended by colonizers and visiting global dignitaries—the ultimate embodiment of how food that’s available exclusively to a privileged class has always reached their plates at immense human and environmental cost. Among 17 works total, six large paintings depict various stages of the party, including an anachronistic basketball game and the uprising that ends the festivities (assisted in part by divine intervention from the Yoruba gods).
The exhibition culminates Rashid’s tenure as the inaugural artist of the Capital Artist Residency, a new annual initiative from arts nonprofit CulturalDC that provides a stipend and accommodations (including family-friendly housing and childcare coordination) to artists of color whose work contributes to a regional and national artistic dialogue.
Culinarialism is staged within CulturalDC's Mobile Art Gallery, a shipping container that's been converted to have a fully white-box interior and gallery lighting for an effect reminiscent of many small Lower East Side galleries. The roving program is an accessibility initiative that brings art to locales outside of concentrated cultural districts.
More information is in the above-linked press release, and a preview of works on view is below. See the Dropbox folder linked above to download high-resolution image files. Image reuse must be with credit to CulturalDC and the artist, unless otherwise noted in the file title. Studio shots are by Isaac Maiselman and portraits are by M, Corey Whitted.
