Galleries

Solo Exhibition –Azikiwe Mohammed
Opening Reception Thursday, November 9th 6-8PM

Rush Arts Gallery is proud to present, Black Labor, a solo exhibition featuring the works of Azikiwe Mohammed. In this new series, Mohammed explores the notion of self-care as a new phenomenon within the black community. Mohammed states “As we are killed for being alive at an ever-increasing rate, celebrating and protecting our aliveness is a form of protest in and of itself. For too many Black people in America this focus on self is an act of luxury; a luxury that has been foreign to us for far too long.”

Through photography, painting, and sculptural works, Mohammed encourages the viewer to address the question: “how can you ask black people who have built this country from the land up, reared children who were not their own and forced to carry the burden of self on their shoulders for centuries to take some much-needed time now? Black Labor does not get time off.”

Azikiwe Mohammed graduated from Bard College in 2005 where he studied photography and fine arts. Since then he has shown these things in galleries both nationally and internationally. In 2015, he received the Art Matters Grant, and in 2016 was the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant. He lives in New York and currently works at Mana Fine Arts as part of their mana BSMT program.

This exhibition is on view from November 9^th to December 16^th at Rush Arts Gallery, 526 W 26th St #311, New York, NY 10001.