Tariku Shiferaw. (Photo via Anthony Philip Fine Art)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
August 28th, 2017
New York (TADIAS) — Tariku Shiferaw will hold his first international solo exhibition at Addis Fine Art’s London project space from September 14th to October 8th, 2017. The exhibition entitled Erase Me is also the gallery’s inaugural show at their London location.
Tariku’s latest body of work “interrogates the concept of mark-making both physically and metaphysically,” states Addis Fine Art’s announcement. “Using titles of songs from Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz, Blues, and Reggae music, these paintings embody both the experiences and struggles expressed through music by Black artists…In appropriating song titles as painting titles, the work automatically inherits the references, identities, and the history portrayed through the songs.
Tadias profiled the Ethiopian-born, LA-raised and New York-based emerging artist last year focusing on his collection of paintings that he described as featuring “contradictions, glitches, interruptions, and disagreements in a system.” In addition, this past Spring Tariku’s work was part of the 2017 Whitney Biennial, an influential annual exhibition held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City that’s considered the leading contemporary art show in the world.
Addis Fine Art gallery shares that in Tariku’s upcoming display “every song used to title paintings tells a story that refers to a certain reality. The work becomes a reference of a reference, much like a signifier to another symbol. This creates repetitive patterns both aesthetically and conceptually. Subtle, yet intricate works that overtake a space with authority, these paintings are placeholders for Black bodies, creating a literal way of being “seen” in a society that does not often see the “other.”
ABOUT TARIKU SHIFERAW
Tariku Shiferaw. (Instagram)
Tariku Shiferaw (b.1983) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work deals with mark-making in ways that addresses both the physical and the metaphysical spaces of painting and societal structures. At the age of nine, he moved to Nairobi, Kenya with his family and shortly after immigrated to the U.S. He spent the latter part of his childhood in Los Angeles, California. He studied for his bachelors in Fine Arts (BFA) at the University of Southern California (USC) in 2007 and later attained his MFA at Parsons The New School for Design in 2015. Shiferaw has exhibited throughout New York and Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions include The 2017 Whitney Biennial as part of Occupy Museums’ Debtfair project (New York, 2017); Hard Cry, Lubov (New York, 2017); Life Sized, Anthony Philip Fine Art (Brooklyn, 2016); Introduction 2016, Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn, 2016); The LA Art Show, Werd Gallery (Los Angeles, 2016); ATAVAST, Roomservice/Standard Practice (Brooklyn, 2015); New Work New York, 1st MFA Biennial Presented by St. Nicks Alliance & Arts@Renaissance (Brooklyn, 2015).
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If You Go:
Addis Fine Art Project Space
Tafeta, 47 – 50 Margaret Street
London, W1W 8SB, UK
Tel: +44 7931557544
hello@addisfineart.com
Exhibition Hours:
14 Sept: Opening Reception (6-8pm)
16 Sept: Artists Talk with Sharon Obuobi (2-4pm)
17 Sept – 8 Oct: Mon to Sat 11am-6pm
Admission: Free
www.addisfineart.com
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