Torkwase Dyson

Torkwase Dyson (born 1973, Chicago, Illinois) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Beacon, New York, United States.[1] Dyson describes the themes of her work as "architecture, infrastructure, environmental justice, and abstract drawing."[2] Her work is informed by her own theory of Black Compositional Thought. This working term considers how spatial networks—paths, throughways, water, architecture, and geographies—are composed by Black bodies as a means of exploring potential networks for Black liberation. She is represented by Pace Gallery and Richard Gray Gallery.[3][4]

Torkwase Dyson
Born
Chicago, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
EducationYale University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Tougaloo College
Known forPainting, printmaking, conceptual art
AwardsJoan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors award, Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists

Background and education

Dyson was born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Tougaloo College where she earned degrees in sociology and social work. In 1999 she received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her MFA in painting/printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2003.

Projects

Studio South Zero x In Conditions of Fresh Water

Studio South Zero (SSZ) was Dyson's mobile solar-powered art studio.[5] In 2016, Dyson and environmental social scientist Danielle Purifoy, traversed post-Bellum black communities in Alamance County, NC and Lowndes County, AL in Studio South Zero, collaborating with community members to create an assemblage of oral histories, artifacts, images, and materials to understand the traditions and nuances of black environmental, cultural, and economic placemaking. In 2017, this assemblage was exhibited in In Conditions of Fresh Water: An Artistic Exploration of Environmental Racism at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies.[6]

The Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice

From February 24, 2018, to March 11, 2018, Dyson led a two-week series of classes, discussions, and experiments held at the Drawing Center.[7] Named the Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice after Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter and American civil rights leader Ida B. Wells, "The School presented an experimental curriculum employing techniques culled from the visual arts as well as design theories of geography, infrastructure, engineering, and architecture to initiate dialogue about geography and spatiality in an era of global crisis due to human-induced climate change."[8]

From May 3, 2018, to July 28, 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.[9]

Exhibitions

Dyson's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. Her sculptures, paintings, drawings, and performances have been included in numerous solo exhibitions and installations at institutions, including Pace Gallery,[10][11] Serpentine Galleries,[12] Hall Art Foundation,[13] New Orleans Museum of Art,[14] Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia University,[15] The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union,[16] Colby Museum of Art at Colby College,[17] Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery at Bennington College,[18] Rhona Hoffman Gallery,[19] Graham Foundation,[20] Davidson Contemporary, The Drawing Center,[21] Landmark Gallery at Texas Tech University,[22] Second Street Gallery,[23] Industry City Gallery/Eyebeam,[24][25] Hemphill Fine Arts,[26] Schiltkamp Gallery at Clark University,[27] Meat Market Gallery, Ty Stokes Gallery, and Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.

Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Passerelle Centre d'art contemporain, Parrish Art Museum,[28] The Mississippi Museum of Art,[29] Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis,[30] Gladstone Gallery,[31] Gracie Mansion Conservancy, Alexander Gray Associates,[32] California African American Museum,[33] Sharjah at United Arab Emirates, The Studio Museum in Harlem,[34] Socrates Sculpture Park,[35] Whitney Museum Museum of Art,[36][37] Duke University Center for Documentary Studies,[38][39] the Harvey B. Gantt Center[40] and more.[41]

In 2023, Torwase Dyson's work is being presented at the São Paulo Art Biennial, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.[42] Their piece "Liquid a Place" [43] is also being exhibited in Tate Liverpool as part of the 2023 Liverpool Biennial "uMoya".

Collections

Dyson's work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hall Art Foundation, The Long Museum, Mead Art Museum, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture and The Studio Museum in Harlem.[44]

Awards

In 2016, Dyson was elected to the board of the Architectural League of New York as Vice President of Visual Arts.[45] In 2019, Dyson was awarded the Studio Museum's Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize and the Anonymous Was a Woman award for painting. In addition to many other grants, fellowships and residencies, she has been the recipient of The Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists, Brooklyn Arts Council grant, Yale University Paul Harper Residency at Vermont Studio Center, Spelman College Art Fellowship, and Yaddo.[46]

Select lectures and panels

In 2017, Dyson was on the faculty of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and has been a visiting critic at Yale School of Art.[47] In addition to being a guest lecturer, she has participated in a number of panel discussions, artists talks, readings and performance lectures in collaboration with Black environmentalists, artists, poets, architects, dancers, and musicians.

2022
  • Pace Gallery, New York, NY, Torkwase Dyson in Conversation with Mario Gooden: On the History of Infrastructure in Dyson's Practice, December 7[48]

2021

2018

2017

2016

2015
  • University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, Values of Color, February 20[57]

2014
  • Reed College, Portland, OR, Nothing Disappears: Site/Environment/Installation and the Re-alignments Happening in My Imagination, April 17[58]
  • 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[59][60]

References
  1. Mitter, Siddhartha (2022-11-10). "An Artist's Gateway to Freedom and Possibility". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  2. Dyson, Torkwase. "Black Interiority: Notes on Architecture, Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, and Abstract Drawing". Pelican Bomb. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  3. "Pace Announces Representation of Torkwase Dyson | Pace Gallery". www.pacegallery.com. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  4. Durón, Maximilíano (2021-11-16). "Gray Gallery to Represent Torkwase Dyson, Artist Focused on Liberation". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  5. Pellicer, Laura; Stasio, Frank (2017-03-09). "Structural Racism On Display In New Exhibition". North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  6. Meek, Beverly (2016-03-18). "Taking on the Environmental Legacy of Racism | Duke Arts". Duke Arts. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  7. D’Souza, Aruna. "Torkwase Dyson". 4Columns. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
  8. ""Winter Term: Torkwase Dyson and the Wynters-Well Drawing School for Enviornmental Justice" Exhibition". www.nyartbeat.com. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  9. "Graham Foundation > Exhibitions > Wynter-Wells School". www.grahamfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-06-16.
  10. "Torkwase Dyson: A Liquid Belonging | Pace Gallery". www.pacegallery.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  11. "Torkwase Dyson: Liquid A Place | Pace Gallery". www.pacegallery.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  12. "Torkwase Dyson: Breathtaking: On Black Beauty and Other Necessary Indeterminacies (Spatial Test With Drawing, _001), 2021". Serpentine Galleries. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  13. "Torkwase Dyson – Exhibitions – Hall Art Foundation". www.hallartfoundation.org. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  14. "Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought | 15 Paintings for the Plantationocene". New Orleans Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  15. Durón, Maximilíano (2019-11-20). "Diane Simpson, Elia Alba, Torkwase Dyson Among 2019 Anonymous Was a Woman Grantees". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  16. "Torkwase Dyson : I Can Drink the Distance – Announcements – e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  17. "Torkwase Dyson: Nautical Dusk".
  18. Thompson, Anne (2018-09-01). "Torkwase Dyson Scalar". Usdan Gallery. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
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  22. "Torkwase Dyson at TTU Landmark Gallery".
  23. "Torkwase Dyson and John Trevino". Second Street Gallery. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  24. "Torkwase Dyson: Unkeeping". Eyebeam. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  25. Meier, Allison (2016-04-04). "Creating a Spatial History of Slavery through Abstraction". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  26. "Torkwase Dyson – Exhibitions – HEMPHILL Artworks". www.hemphillfinearts.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  27. "Schiltkamp Gallery | Visual & Performing Arts | Clark University". Department of Visual and Performing Arts. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  28. "Set It Off". Parrish Art Museum. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  29. ""A Movement in Every Direction" Explores the Great Migration's Continuing Influence on American Culture". ARTnews.com. 2022-03-14. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  30. "Stories of Resistance". Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  31. "Drawing 2020 – Gladstone Gallery". www.gladstonegallery.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  32. "Catalyst: Art and Social Justice – Gracie Mansion Conservancy – Other Exhibitions – Alexander Gray Associates". www.alexandergray.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  33. "CAAM | Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary". caamuseum.org. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  34. "A Constellation". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  35. "Socrates Sculpture Park's 2015 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition by Socrates Sculpture Park – Issuu". issuu.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  36. "Between the Waters". whitney.org. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  37. "Monastic Residency: Torkwase Dyson". whitney.org. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  38. "In Conditions of Fresh Water | Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University". documentarystudies.duke.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  39. "Taking on the Environmental Legacy of Racism". Duke Arts. 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  40. "The Future is Abstract". The Gantt Center. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
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  42. Durón, Maximilíano (2023-04-27). "Bienal de Saõ Paulo Names Initial 43 Artists for 2023 Edition, Including Igshaan Adams, Julien Creuzet, Torkwase Dyson, and Ellen Gallagher". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
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  44. "Torkwase Dyson | Pace Gallery". www.pacegallery.com. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
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  50. "Graham Foundation > Events > Christina Sharpe and Torkwase Dyson in Conversation". www.grahamfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-06-16.
  51. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2017-02-26). "What's On: Members, Spring 2017". Issuu. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  52. "Torkwase Dyson with the Visiting Artist Lecture Series". The New School. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  53. "On Documentary Abstraction – ArtCenter/South Florida". www.artcentersf.org. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  54. "Dean Milton S. F. Curry to Lead Critical Panel at Design Miami | USC School of Architecture". arch.usc.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  55. The Studio Museum in Harlem (2016-02-18), The Artist's Voice: Torkwase Dyson and ruby onyinyechi amanze with Kimberli Gant, retrieved 2018-03-08
  56. "Black Spatial Matters – Eyebeam". Eyebeam. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  57. "Values of Color | Wolf Humanities Center". wolfhumanities.upenn.edu. 7 January 2015. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  58. College, Reed. "Lecture: Torkwase Dyson, "Nothing Disappears: Site/Environment/Installation and the Re-alignments Happening in My Imagination"". Events at Reed. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  59. "Connections and Flows: Water, Energy, and Digital Information in the Global South | BIARI". watson.brown.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  60. "Connection and Flows: Water, Energy and Digital Technology in the Global South Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI) Syllabus" (PDF). 2014.
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