Torkwase Dyson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York, United States. Her work has been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, The Museum of Modern Art, New York ,the

Corcoran College of Art and Design The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

, and the Smithsonian

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-S ...

. She describes the themes of her work as "architecture, infrastructure,

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...

, and abstract drawing." In 1999 she received a BFA from

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virginia ...

and her MFA from

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in graphic design, painti ...

in painting/printmaking in 2003. In 2016, Dyson was elected to the board of the Architectural League of New York as Vice President of Visual Arts. In 2017, she was on the faculty of the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...

. She is a visiting critic at

Projects

Studio South Zero

Studio South Zero (SSZ) is a solar-powered, mobil art studio Dyson uses in her installations.

Conditions of Fresh Water

Conditions of Fresh Water (2015-2017) is a project about "black Southern geography and the struggle for environmental justice."

The Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice

The 2018 Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice, named for Jamaican writer

Sylvia Wynter ''The Honourable'' Sylvia Wynter, O.J. ( Holguín, Cuba, 11 May 1928) is a Jamaican novelist, /sup> dramatist, /sup> critic, philosopher, and essayist. /sup> Her work combines insights from the natural sciences, the humanities, art, and anti-c ...

and American civil rights leader

Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...

, is a two-week series of classes, discussions, and experiments held at the Drawing Center.

The Wynter-Wells School

In 2018, The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Arts presented an exhibition of Dyson's work building off of her two-week residency at the Drawing Center, ''Winter Term''. The exhibition consisted of new site-specific drawings and a series of programming under the title ''The Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Liberation'', as part of Dyson's pedagogical approach to art-making, consisting of a series of workshops, lectures, and an open studio where Dyson would actively produce and alter the work on view in front of the public.

Exhibitions

Solo

2018

Graham Foundation The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts is a 501(c)3 non-profit that “fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The Graham realize ...

, ''Wynter-Wells School,'' May 3–July 14 * Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, ''Dear Henry'', March 15–May 5 *

The Drawing Center The Drawing Center is a Manhattan, New York, museum and a nonprofit exhibition space that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. History The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of drawings at ...

, New York, NY, ''Black Compositional Thought and the Wynter-Well Drawing School for Environmental Justice'', February 24–March 11

2017

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 Sy ...

, Landmark Gallery, Lubbock, TX, ''Hidden in Plain Site: Black Paintings''

2016

* Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA, ''Mine Mind'', May 27–June 23 * Eyebeam, Brooklyn, NY, ''Unkeeping'', March 9–April 12 * Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington DC, ''Illegal Abstraction'', October 27, 2016 – January 27, 2017

2014

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...

, Schiltkamp Gallery, Worcester, MA ''Mine: Painting and Drawing'' October 1–October 31

2008

* Meat Market Gallery, Washington DC, ''Hereinafter'' *

Corcoran School of the Arts and Design The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

, 31 Gallery, Washington, DC, ''The Rhymes Cost But the Guck is for Free''

Select group

2018

, New York, NY, ''Between the Waters'', March 18–

2017

* ArtCenter / South Florida, Miami FL, ''On Documentary Abstraction'', September 30, 2017 – January 2, 2018 * Harvey B. Gantt Center, Charlotte NC, ''The Future is Abstract'', January 28–July 8 * Koenig & Clinton, Brooklyn, NY, ''Lack of Location is My Location'', November 3, 2017 – January 14, 2018 * Hemphill Fine Art, Washington, DC, ''35 Days'', June 24–August 11 * 3LD Art & Technology Center, New York, NY, ''Works on Water'', June 5–30 * Martos Gallery, New York, NY, ''Invisible Man'', May 3–June 24 * Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY, ''Stack'', May 11–June 17 * Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA, ''Dialogues'', ''On Drawing'', March 16–May 23 * Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, NY, ''x ≈ y: An Act of Translation''

2016

* Duke University, Center for Documentary Studies, Durham NC, ''In Conditions of Freshwater'', March 2–June 10 *

PostMasters Gallery Postmasters is a contemporary art gallery located in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, owned and directed by Magda Sawon and Tamas Banovich. The Postmasters gallery opened in the East Village in December 1984, moved to SoHo in 1989, and was rel ...

, New York, NY, ''Grey Scale'', June 24–August 16 * Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, ''The Block Party'', July 14 – August

2015

* Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, ''A Constellation'', November 12, 2015 – March 6, 2016 * Eyebeam, 101 Front St. Galleries, Brooklyn, NY, ''Annual Showcase'', January 29–February 21 *

South Street Seaport The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District, in Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district ...

Cultural Building, New York, NY, ''Outside In'', October 2–November 13 *

Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

, Long Island City, NY, ''EAF 15: 2015 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition'', September 27, 2015 – March 16, 2016

2014

Franconia Sculpture Park Franconia Sculpture Park is an outdoor sculpture park in Franconia, Minnesota, United States, that offers a 50-acre outdoor museum, active artist residency program, and a depth and breadth of community arts programming for a diverse and engaged p ...

, Shafer, MN, ''Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition'' *

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

, New York, NY, ''Africa Extended''

2011

* Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MD, ''Material Girls: Contemporary Black Women Artists'', February 12–October 16

2010

, New York, NY, ''2010 Whitney Biennial Monastic Residency'', May7–May 9 * Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, PA, ''Ephemerality'', January 12–April 12

2008

* Flanders Art Gallery, Raleigh, NC, ''Spectrum-ed'', June 1–July 1 * Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington, VA, ''She's So Articulate'' * African American Museum, Dallas, TX, ''It Might Blow Up, But It Won't Go Pop''

Select lectures and panels

2018

, Chicago, IL, ''

Christina Sharpe Christina Elizabeth Sharpe is an American academic who is a professor of English literature and Black Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. Education Sharpe received a bachelor's degree in English and Africana studies from the Univer ...

and Torkwase Dyson in Conversation'', June 14 *

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 ...

, Jackson, MS, ''Race, Space, and Abstraction in the American South'', February 17 * Drawing Center, New York, NY, ''Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice Panel Discussion'', March 1

2017

* Duke University, Durham, NC, ''In Conditions of Fresh Water'', March 20 *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York, NY, Artists on Artworks series, ''Three Conditions of Space'', March 24 *

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

, New York, NY, Visiting Artist Lecture Series, April 26 *

, Skowhegan, ME, Barbara Lee Lecture Series, June 23 * ArtCenter / South Florida, Miami FL, ''On Documentary Abstraction'', August 30 *

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

, Philadelphia, PA, ''Hyper Shape'', December 6 *

Design Miami Design Miami/ is an American design company that holds two annual flagship collectible design fairs in Miami, Florida and Basel, Switzerland. Design Miami/ also holds fairs in Paris and Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard M ...

, Miami, FL, ''Concept, Abstraction, Blackness'', December 8

2016

* Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, ''The Artist's Voice'', February 4 * Eyebeam, New York, NY, ''Black Spatial Matters'', April 9 *

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

, Tucson, AZ, Visual Artists and Scholars Committee, ''Illegal Abstraction A Single Author'', October 6 * Hunter College, New York, NY, ''On Painting'', October 19 * Drawing Center, New York, NY, ''Open Session 9: Cartography of Ghosts'', December 15

2015

* University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, ''Values of Color'', February 20

2014

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

, Portland, OR, ''Nothing Disappears: Site/Environment/Installation and the Re-alignments Happening in My Imagination'', April 17 * Brown University, Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI) Connections and Flows: Water, Energy and Digital Information in the Global South, ''Studio South Zero: Looking at Urban Ecological Aesthetics'', June 19

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyson, Torkwase Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Artists from Brooklyn 21st-century American artists 21st-century African-American artists