Rodney Ewing (born 1964) is an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

visual artist. He lives in New York City as of 2022, and formerly lived in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Early life and education

Rodney Ewing was born in 1964 in

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

, Louisiana. His father was a

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

veteran, who also served 20 years in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. Rodney Ewing also served in the military and is a

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

veteran. Ewing’s father introduced him to art through comic books. Ewing also said he went to schools that had strong art programs. Ewing received his Bachelor of Fine Art: Printmaking,

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

, Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1989; and his

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

: Printmaking,

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

, Morgantown, West Virginia in 1992.

Work

Ewing's work explores identity, narrative, history, space, displacement, physical vulnerability and violence. Ewing's work involves extensive subject research. Often Ewing uses once-common, but now little-known historical objects. He also uses first person narratives. Ewing's art explores and translates the literal and emotional dimensions of these subjects. Along with historical images of artifacts and victims of violence, Ewing often layers in quotations by different writers. Reading these quotations, sometimes obscured by the visual elements of the piece, creates another experience that is unique and nuanced within the context of the print, sculpture or installation. He employs different methods to draw the viewer in, literally and figuratively, toward the piece and immerses the viewer in a reorienting experience of images, words and ideas. Ewing's work has referenced

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

Henry Box Brown Henry Box Brown (c. 1815 – June 15, 1897) was a 19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For a short tim ...

Colson Whitehead Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work '' The Intuitionist''; '' The Underground Railroad'' (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Awa ...

George Stinney George Stinney Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944), was an African American boy, who at the age of 14 was convicted, in a proceeding later vacated as an unfair trial, and executed, for the murders of two young white girls in March 1944 — ...

, Charles Moore, San Francisco Redevelopment after Japanese Internment,

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote ''Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collecti ...

Petrus Camper Petrus Camper FRS (11 May 1722 – 7 April 1789), was a Dutch physician, anatomist, physiologist, midwife, zoologist, anthropologist, palaeontologist and a naturalist in the Age of Enlightenment. He was one of the first to take an interest in ...

, and

Saul Williams Saul Stacey Williams (born February 29, 1972) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film ''Slam'' ...

. His artwork is in public museum collections, including at

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

Fairfield University Art Museum The Fairfield University Art Museum, formerly the Bellarmine Museum of Art, is an art museum located on the renovated lower level of Bellarmine Hall on the campus of Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. The museum features Classical ar ...

, and the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

Reviews

“Rodney Ewing’s drawings, installations, and mixed media works focus on his need to intersect body and place, memory and fact to re-examine human histories, cultural conditions, and events. With his work he is pursuing a narrative that requires us to be present and intimate.”

...much of wing'swork is about empowering the audience and giving them opportunities to recognize their own agency

Residencies and select exhibitions

* 2020, ''Close to Home, Creativity in Crisis'',

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, San Francisco, California * 2020, ''The Space Program'', San Francisco, California * 2019, ''Project Space:

Headlands Center for the Arts Headlands Center for the Arts hosts an internationally recognized artist-in-residence program, and interdisciplinary public programs. It is situated in a campus of artist-renovated military buildings in the Marin Headlands, in Marin County, Cali ...

'', Marin County, California * 2019, ''

Museum of the African Diaspora The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) is a contemporary art museum in San Francisco, California. MoAD holds exhibitions and presents artists exclusively of the African diaspora, one of only a few museums of its kind in the United States. Locate ...

,''

Smithsonian Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Affiliate, San Francisco, California * 2019, artist residency at

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is located in the Old Market Historic District of downtown Omaha, Nebraska, at the corner of 12th Street and Leavenworth Street. In addition to an international artist-in-residence program, Bemis Center hosts te ...

, Omaha, Nebraska * 2018, Artifacts: On War & Survival at the

National Veterans Art Museum The National Veterans Art Museum, formerly the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, located at 4041 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago's six corners neighborhood, is dedicated to displaying and studying art produced by veterans from the Vietnam War ...

, Chicago, Illinois * 2018, ''

Djerassi Artists Residency The Djerassi Resident Artists Program is an artists and writers residency in Woodside, California. The residency sits on a 583-acre ranch with a 12-sided cattle barn converted into artist studios. History The program was co-founded in 1979 by Ca ...

'', Woodside, California * 2018, ''Sanctuary City: For Liberty and Justice for Some?''

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cali ...

Gallery, San Francisco, California * 2017–2018, artist residency, ''

Recology Recology, formerly known as Norcal Waste Systems, is a waste management company headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company collects and processes municipal solid waste, reclaiming reusable materials. The company also operates transfer ...

,'' San Francisco, California * 2017, ''Hangar'' Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal * 2015, artist-in-residency at ''

de Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...

,'' San Francisco, California * 2015–2016,

award recipient * ''One Less Too Many,'' PASS7, Lisbon, Portugal * ''Reconstruct'',

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY * ''Beyond Printmaking 5'',

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

, Lubbock, TX * ''Never Alone: Exploring the Bonds Between and With Members of the Armed Forces,''

Gallery, San Francisco, California

Select works

* ''Sum of My Father'' (2018), sculpture made of wool military blankets, silkscreen, and engraved name plates * ''Between Worlds: Portals'' (2016), installation explores the history of displacement and resilience of African Americans with doors, windows and words * ''Longitude and Latitude'' (2019), explores the geographic and mnemonic landscapes of historical and social events

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewing, Rodney American printmakers Living people Mixed-media artists Interdisciplinary artists African-American printmakers 21st-century African-American people 1964 births