Tajh Rust is a New Haven-based painter and filmmaker born in Brooklyn, NY.
Rust addresses the idea of truth, investigated from multiple angles. Through figurative painting, he explores physical representation — how individuals choose to represent themselves, and the role environment plays in their identities. His environmental portraits place the subjects in settings of personal significance —a collaboration between painter and sitter, where authorship is shared.
Through abstraction, he explores social representation and how the construct of race shapes geographies, histories, and potential futures. These works are often graphic responses to texts from an array of sources, including song lyrics, conversations, and book excerpts.
Rust holds a BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (2011) and in currently pursuing graduate studies in painting at Yale University School of Art, Painting.
