Tariku Shiferaw is a Brooklyn based artist whose work deals with mark-making in ways that addresses both the physical and the metaphysical spaces of painting and societal structures. Shiferaw has exhibited throughout New York and Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions include The 2017 Whitney Biennial as part of Occupy Museum’s Debtfair (New York, 2017); Hard Cry, Lubov (New York, 2017); Life Sized, Anthony Phillip Gallery (Brooklyn, 2016); Introduction 2016, Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn, 2016); The LA Art Show, Werd Gallery (Los Angeles, 2016); ATAVAST, Roomservice/Standard Practice (Brooklyn, 2015); New Work New York, 1st MFA Biennial Presented by St. Nicks Alliance & Arts@Renaissance (Brooklyn, 2015).
Courtesy of the Artist
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Tariku Shiferaw is a Brooklyn based artist whose paintings and installation art deal with mark making in the physical and metaphysical sense. Often, with the intention to interrogate and mark spaces and places, Shiferaw plays with the notion that thought processes and bodies are mark-makers or placeholders within societal construct. Much like “x” in math, a mark becomes the unknown symbol that occupies a place until it is decoded. In 2016, realizing his black body in the western society functions as “x” does in math, he began to investigate how mark making operated outside of his paintings and into the grids of society. In a way, the grid is a larger painting surface, which uses bodies and thought patterns to as marks. In his recent body of work titled, One Of These Black Boys he uses a lot of popular song lines or titles in naming some of the work. “King Kunta,” by Kendrick Lamar; “If I Rule The World,” by Nas featuring Lauren Hill; and “Allow Me To Introduce Myself,” a line from a song by Jay-Z are a few among the many song lines playfully used to title each work.
Shiferaw has exhibited throughout New York and Los Angeles including Anthony Phillip Gallery Brooklyn, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, Werd Gallery, Los Angeles, and 1st MFA Biennial Presented by St. Nicks Alliance & Arts@Renaissance, Brooklyn, 2015. He is also the recipient of the 2015 Bluewolf Scholarship in conjunction with a six-month two-person exhibition titled, “In Between Abstraction.”
Courtesy of the Artist
