Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers)

Throughout his paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers) creates a fictional universe, which he calls the “Frenglish Empire,” in order to reimagine colonial history. The artist depicts the characters, conflicts, artifacts, and ephemera that hail from this invented world superpower, which ruled a transcontinental dominion from 1648 to 1880.

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Umar Rashid

Born in Chicago, IL, 1976

Education
BA, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, 2000

Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

One-Person Exhibitions

2022
Ancien Régime Change Part Three. The men who sold the world, Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Ancien Régime Change Part Two. En Germinal: Les Printemps de Guerre, Almine Rech, Paris, France

2021
En Garde / On God, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Ancien Régime Change: Part One Can You Dig It? A Dirge for Cyrus and His Band of Warriors, Half Gallery, New York, NY
Culinarialism, CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery, Sandlot Southeast, Washington D.C.

2020
Money over everything. Power before anything. It blows my mind, but it’s like that. The life of Ambroos Van Peere. A tragicomedy. Dutch Guiana, 1793., Cokkie Snoei Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
In the Court of The Crimson Queen or White Woman on a Horse, Tiwani Contemporary,
London, UK

2018
What is the Color When Black is Burned? (The Gold War Part 1), University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ

2017
The Free Radicals, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Messier Objects. (You Get the Gods You Deserve). Part 3 of The Americas 1795., Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York, NY
The Belhaven Republic (A Delta Blues), University of Memphis Art Gallery, Memphis, TN

2016
That Ain’t Gold, That’s a Soul, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2015
Rampjaar. #tbt to that time when we didn’t let xenophobia get in the way of some sweet, motherfucking payback. 1789, Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Kill Your Best Ideas, The Battle for New York and Its Lifeline, the Hudson River, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY

2014
MATRIX 170: On Errythang (On Everything), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Heartbreaking and Shit, But that’s the Globe: The Battle of Manhattan, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY

2013
We Don’t Need No Water (Les Temps de la Chevauchee’), Narwhal Projects, Toronto, Canada
And Those Figures Through the Leaves. And the Light Through That Smoke, Part Two to the Americas, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
You Can Fall: The War of The Mourning Arrows, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ; traveled to the Wellin Museum, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY

2012
All Gold Everything, An Elegy, Taylor De Cordoba Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
We Buy Gold, We Buy Everything, We Sell Souls, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
Every Winter Was a War, She Said, Heiner Contemporary, Washington D.C.
It’s Yours: Wars of the Frenglish Revolution and Other Conflicts (1792–1797), Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY

2011
The Edge of the Earth Isn’t Far from Here, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
La Guerre De Machettes Danseuses (The War Of The Dancing Machetes) Crocodile Company, Part 1, Taylor De Cordoba Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2009
New Work, Galerie Emmanuel Post, Leipzig, Germany

2008
In the Court of the Crimson King, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA

2006
Last Night, After the Lights Went Out, We Fell, Taylor De Cordoba, Los Angeles, CA
25 Bold Moves, curated by Simon Watson & Craig Hensala, House of Campari, Venice, CA
The Easter Seal, Bent Gallery, South Pasadena, CA
You and Me, Unitard Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Group Exhibitions

2022
Grand Opening, Galerie Droste, Paris, France
Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

2021
Resting Point of Accommodation, organized with Bill Powers, Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2020
Made in L.A. 2020: A Version, Hammer Museum and the Huntington Library, Art
Museum, and Botanical Gardens, Los Angeles, CA
All the Days and Nights, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK

2019
30 Years of Dutch Courage, Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Fate of Empires, Studio d’Arte Raffaeli, Trento, Italy
Reimagining Colonial History, Sun Valley Art Center, Sun Valley, ID
Forever, a Moment: Black Meditations on Time and Space!, SOMA Arts, San Francisco, CA
Personal Truth, El Camino College Museum of Art, Torrance, CA
Serpentine Fire, Quotidian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
191919191919, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2018
Here, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Cosmic Traffic Jam, Zevitas Marcus Gallery, Culver City, CA
The Eye Sees Not Itself, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation, 21C Museum, Louisville, KY

2017
Our Moment Is Here, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa
Unsettled, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

2016
Summer Fling: The Barn Show, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Southampton, NY

2015
A Primitive Future, Subliminal Projects, Echo Park, CA
Voces, Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA

2014
Attunement, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
Uncertain Terms, What If the World Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Based on a True Story: Duke Riley and Frohawk Two Feathers, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
Ritual and Residue: The Art of Drink, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY

2013
Good Intentions: Re-Imagining Rockwell’s Boy Scouts, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, CA
June Group Show, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Rocky Mountain High, Gildar Gallery, Denver, CO
Seat’s Taken, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, VT
In Case We Don’t Die, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA

2010
Stranger Than Fiction, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Opening Ceremony, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY
Else, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

2005
Permafrost, Ghettogloss Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles and Reviews

2021
Odufu, Emann. “Umar Rashid at Half Gallery.” WhiteHotMagazine.com, December 2021.
Raez, Constanza Falco. “Umar Rashid | ‘En Garde / On God’ at Blum & Poe Gallery.” Flaunt.com, December 6, 2021.
Caldwell, Ellen C. “Histories Disembowled in Umar Rashid’s En Garde/On God” RiotMaterial.com, November 19, 2021.
Binyam, Maya. “The Review’s Review: En Garde.” TheParisReview.org, November 19, 2021.
Pricco, Evan. “Umar Rashid “On God” at Blum and Poe, Los Angeles.” Juxtapose.com, November 10, 2021.
Ghassemitari, Shawn. “Umar Rashid Paints the Fictitious History of the Frenglish Empire.” Hypebeast.com, November 9, 2021.
Stromberg, Matt and Elisa Wouk Almino. “Your Concise Los Angeles Art Guide for November 2021.” Hyperallergic.com, November 4, 2021.
Dambrot, Shana Nys. “Pictures of You: Arts Calendar: November 4-10.” LAweekly.com, November 3, 2021.
Ables, Kelsey. “Umar Rashid’s Narrative Paintings Collapse Past, Present and Future into a Darkly Comic Vision of Colo¬nialism.” Washingtonpost.com, October 27, 2021.
Scott, Chadd. “Umar Rashid Brings Expansive Story To Tiny Space In Washington, D.C.” Forbes.com, October 22, 2021.
Dambrot, Shana Nys. “12 Must-See Exhibitions This Art Season.” LAweekly.com, September 9, 2021.
Dambrot, Shana Nys. “Umar Rashid Breaks It All Down.” LAweekly.com, June 24, 2021.

2020
Dzamonja, Nevena. “Polymath Creative Umar Rashid Considers the Imperial Effects of Pandemic.” Culturedmag.com, June 11, 2020.

2018
Caldwell, Ellen C. “Umar Rashid’s ‘What Is the Color, When Black Is Burned?’” RiotMaterial.com, December 12, 2018.

2017
Pierrot, Gregory. “To Be the Other of an Other: An Encounter with Frohawk Two Feathers.” ASAP/Journal, vol. 2, no. 3 (September 2017).

2015
Konermann, Alyssa. “On View: ‘Based on a True Story’ at the Contemporary Arts Center.” CincinnatiMagazine.com, February 18, 2015.
Seda-Reeder, Maria. “Truth Telling: Duke Riley and Frohawk Two Feathers at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati.” Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art (February 2015).

2014
Dunne, Susanne. “Artist Re-Imagines Hartford, World History.” Courant.com, October 9, 2014.
Pflaumer, Barbara. “Artists Drinking Beer.” Foreground Magazine (Summer 2014).

2011
Duncan, Michael. “Soul Searching in The U.S.A.” Art In America (March 2011): 134–139.
Yorio, Erika. “Frohawk Two Feathers.” Antennae Magazine (February 2011).

2010
Cotter, Holland. ‘Else’. NYTimes.com, September 24, 2010.

2008
“The Rise and Fall of The Frenglish Empire, Part Four.” Flaunt Magazine (June 2008).

2007
Myers, Holly. “A Chapter from Colonial Times.” Los Angeles Times (February 29, 2008).

2006
Nys Dambrot, Shana. “Review.” Art Ltd (November 2006).
Nys Dambrot, Shana. “Preview.” Flavorpill L.A., no. 184 (September 2006).

Catalogues and Books

2020
Salah, Ben Myriam and Lauren Mackler. Made in L.A. 2020: A Version. Munich: Prestel, 2020.
Perrée, Rob. Tell Me Your Story: 100 Years of Storytelling in African American Art. Amersfoort, Netherlands: Kunsthal KAdE, 2020, 154–155.

2015
Bland, Bartholomew F. and Umar Rashid. Frohawk Two Feathers: Kill Your Best Ideas—The Battle for New York and its Lifeline, Hudson, NY: The Hudson River Museum, 2015.

2013
You Can Fall. The War of the Mourning Arrows. Summit, NJ: The Visual Art Center of New Jersey and The Wellin Museum, 2013.

2012
Roberts, Veronica. Frohawk Two Feathers. New York: Morgan Lehman Gallery, 2012.

2011
Rashid, Umar. The Edge of the Earth Isn’t Far from Here. Cape Town: Stevenson Gallery, 2011.

2004
Two Feathers, Frohawk. The Hunter and the Teardrop. Self-Published, 2004.

Museum and Public Collections
21c Museum, Louisville, KY
Artist Pension Trust, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Conseil Regional de la Guadeloupe
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Jorge Pérez Collection, Miami, FL
Mount Holyoke Art Museum, South Hadley, MA
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
Progressive Collection, Mayfield Village, OH
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
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa