Jamal Cyrus (born 1973) is an American conceptual artist who works in a range of media, including drawing, sculpture, textiles, assemblage, installation,

performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

, and sound. His artistic and research practices investigates the history, culture, and identity of the United States, questioning conventional narratives and foregrounding Black political movements, social justice concerns, and the experiences and impact of the

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

, including Black music.

Biography

Cyrus was born in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, where he lives and works. He received a BFA from the University of Houston in 2004 before attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2005. In 2008, he graduated from the MFA program at the University of Pennsylvania. Cyrus was an artist-in-residence at Artpace San Antonio in 2010 and a member of the Otabenga Jones and Associates artist collective from 2002 to 2017.

Art Work

Cyrus's artistic practice is research-based; he makes use of physical and digital archives to investigate American history and historiography through the lens of Black oppression, liberation, and identity. Working in a range of media and materials, his works combine found images, documents, and objects with paper, graphite, papyrus, denim, and other materials, and includes mixed-media installations, assemblages, sculptures, drawings, performances, sound, and video. In referencing material and iconographic aspects of Black history alongside historical events, interpretations,

tropes Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...

, fabulations, and mythologies, Cyrus's work addresses themes such as counterculture, surveillance, militancy, revolution, and consumerism.

Exhibitions

Cyrus has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows. His work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial,

Art Basel Miami Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local institutions to help ...

, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the

Akron Art Museum The Akron Art Museum is an art museum in Akron, Ohio, United States. The museum first opened on February 1, 1922, as the Akron Art Institute. It was located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library. The Institute offered clas ...

, the Walker Art Center, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the

Blaffer Art Museum Blaffer Art Museum is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in the Arts District of the University of Houston campus. Housed in the university’s Fine Arts Building, it is part of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. It was fo ...

, the

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (widely referred to as The Modern) is an art museum of post-World War II art in Fort Worth, Texas with a collection of international modern and contemporary art. Founded in 1892, The Modern is located in the c ...

, the

Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

, the

Mississippi Museum of Art The Mississippi Museum of Art is a public museum in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the largest museum in Mississippi. Location It is located at the corner of 380 South Lamar Street and 201 East Pascagoula Street in Jackson, Mississippi.Lee Ellis, ''F ...

, the

Asia Society The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and around the world (Hong Kong, Man ...

, the New Museum, the Kitchen, the

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in Detroit. MOCAD is housed in a building, a converted former auto dealership designed by architect Andrew Zago. The architecture of the building ...

, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, and the Museum of London Docklands. In addition, as a member of Otabenga Jones and Associates, Cyrus exhibited at the High Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, the California African American Museum, and the Menil Collection, among other venues.

Awards

* John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant (2023) * David C. Driskell Prize (2020) * Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2019) * BMW Art Journey (2017-2018) * Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2009) * Artadia Houston Award (2006) * Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2005)

References

{{Reflist Living people 1973 births Artists from Houston Conceptual artists University of Houston alumni Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni