Umar Rashid. Photo courtesy of the artist.Artist: Umar Rashid
Umar Rashid (b. 1976, Chicago, IL) creates paintings, drawings, and sculptures that chronicle the grand historical fiction of the Frenglish Empire (1648–1880), a conceptual world he has been developing for over seventeen years. Each work represents a frozen moment from this parallel history, often recalling fraught real-world narratives—both canonized and marginalized—through familiar signifiers and iconographies. Rashid’s work channels the visual lexicons of hip hop, ancient and modern pop culture, gang and prison life, and revolutionary movements throughout time. This alternative history and its many subplots unfold through elaborate visual and literary detail, including painterly tableaus depicting large networks of protagonists connected across multiple bodies of work and with lyrical and humorous artwork titles often a paragraph in length. Each exhibition is produced in response to the geographical locale of the host site; each time, Rashid builds upon his encyclopedic knowledge of global colonial history and conjures new fabulations that underline the roles of race, gender, class, and power in the tales of what was, what was recorded, what was negated, and what could have been.
Rashid lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He received his BA in cinema and photography from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL. His work was featured at The Huntington and the Hammer Museum as part of the biennial Made in LA 2020: a version. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include Ancien Regime Change 4, 5, and 6, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY (2022); What is the color when black is burned? (The Gold War Part 1), University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ (2018); and The Belhaven Republic (A Delta Blues), University of Memphis Galleries A and B, Memphis, TN (2017). Rashid’s work is represented in the public collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY; Jorge Pérez Collection, Miami, FL; Mount Holyoke Art Museum, South Hadley, MA; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, among others.
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Re: Bound 10 (After Kanye). From the moraine to the plains. Lorraine seduces., 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 47 7/8 x 47 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches
The siege of Santa Monica from the bay. Viewing party in the Palisades Or, when Megatron shows up, expect the worst. The little red corvette battle ship of the Imperial Spanish Navy, sails into Santa Monica Bay and destroys the statue of Calafia and a few other monuments. Meanwhile, the Company Cazador is planning to assault via land from the Palisades but are interrupted by a rowdy outing and an assassination attempt. Black and White Jesus shielded their eyes in the Trans-Am., 2021 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 x 1 1/2 inches Photo: Josh Schaedel
In the House of the Bear, the Jaguar, and the Crocodile, The Triumvirate. Or, the miracle at the Californian Alhambra. The rebel leaders hover above their acolytes adept in the ways of reverse conversion. The priests have a 50 percent survival rate. Meanwhile, some djinn show up to see what’s going on. Black and White Jesus in the El Camino appear shocked., 2021 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 72 x 1 1/2 inches Photo: Josh Schaedel
Jaguar Jairo, former captain of the Company Cazador elite forces of New Spain reflecting on his decision to defect to the rebels. Having made “peace” with the action, but acutely aware of the violent tempest to come, he wants to disappear or become a god., 2021 Ink and acrylic on paper 55 3/8 x 40 1/4 x 2 inches framed Photo: Josh Schaedel
Umar Rashid, Installation view, BLUM, Los Angeles, 2024, Photo: Josh Schaedel︎