Selected Artwork

Baton Rouge, 2023
Two-headed, 2023
12pm on 145th, 2022    
Candy, 2021  
Sisters, 2021
Dreamers 1 and 2 (Diptych)2021
Two Women 3, 2021
Rainbow Bronze, 2021
Tabled, 2021
Loveseat Prototype 2 – Brown Hips, 2020
Sill, 2020
Snake, 2020
Fast Girl, 2020
Vanity, 2020
Carpet (Diptych), 2020
Telephone, 2020
Unrequited, 2020
Lil Mama 2, 2020
Sprewell, 2020
Nate the Snake, 2020
Pocket Rocket, 2020
Spat, 2019-2020
Loosie in the Park, 2019
Ol’ Bay, 2019
Piss, 2019
Lady, 2019
Window, 2019
Back Handed, 2019
Damsel, 2022
No, 2019
Skirt, 2019
From Afar, 2019
Lenox, 2019
Home, 2019
Seated, 2019
Evening, 2019
Big Toe, 2019
Fade, 2019
Father, 2019
Blonde, 2019
Pump, 2019
Horse, 2018
Origin, 2018
Pant, 2018
Scarlet, 2018
Sock, 2018
Racer, 2018
Thank You, 2018
Boca, 2017
Pressed, 2017
Sugafoot, 2017
Trees, 2017
Princess, 2017
Fresh, 2017
Ice Cream, 2017
Milk Chocolate, 2017
Koco at the Bodega, 2017
Pop, 2017
Bayo, 2017
Wild Blue Cherry, 2017
Green-eyed, 2016
Spare Moment, 2016
Carma, 2016
Butterfly, 2016
Loner, 2016
Mista & Mis’ess, 2016
Bellyphat, 2016
Cross, 2016
My Black Ass, 2016
For the Gods2015
Bodega Run, 2015
Sapphire, 2015
Pink Eye, 2015

Exhibitions

In the Studio

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photo by Christian DeFonte

photo by Christian DeFonte

photo by Christian DeFonte

photo by Christian DeFonte

photo by Christian DeFonte

photo by Christian DeFonte

Publications

Media

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Bodega Run Book Launch | Swiss Institute, New York, 2024

Tschabalala Self: Make Room, 2023

Spaces and Places | Exhibition Walkthrough | Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich

Party of Three | Hermès Window Display, Madison Avenue Boutique

2023

Seated | Coal Drop Yard, London

2022

Avant Arte X Tschabalala Self

2022

Lucia di Lammermoor Banner | Metropolitan Opera, New York City

2022

UGG X Tschabalala Self

2021

 Sounding Board, Performa | Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell, New York

2021

 

Sounding Board | Teaser 1

2021

Sounding Board | Teaser 2

2021

Cotton Mouth | Eva Presenhuber Gallery, New York

2020

Cotton Mouth | Eva Presenhuber Gallery, New York

2020

Bvlgari & TBrand Studio | Tschabalala Self

2019

Louis Vuitton X Tschabalala Self | Artycapucines

2019

Louis Vuitton X Tschabalala Self | Artycapucines

2019

Interview by Phyllis Hollis.
October 12, 2022

"Art Talks Episode 122"

Cerebral Women

Information

Tschabalala Self (b.1990 Harlem, USA) lives and works in Upstate, NY. Self is an artist and builds a singular style from the syncretic use of painting, printmaking and sculpture to explore ideas surrounding the black body. She constructs depictions of predominantly women using a combination of sewn, printed, and painted materials, traversing different artistic and craft traditions. The formal and conceptual aspects of Self’s work seek to expand her critical inquiry into selfhood and human flourishing. Recent solo exhibitions and performances include Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen (2023); Le Consortium, Dijon (2022); Performa 2021 Biennial, New York City (2021); Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore (2021); ICA, Boston (2020); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Art Omi, Ghent (2019); Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2019) and Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2018).

 

Her work has been exhibited at:

ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj (2022); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2022); Kunsthalle Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf (2021); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2021); Pinakothek Der Moderne, Munich (2021); Centro Pecci Prato, Prato (2020/21); MOCA Jacksonville, Jacksonville (2020); The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs (2020); Pérez Art Museum, Miami (2020); Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover (2020); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2020); Rubell Museum, Miami (2019); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2019); Philadelphia Art Museum, Philadelphia; Museum of Modern art San Diego (2019); MoMA PS1, New York (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019); Jewish Museum, San Francisco (2019); Le Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain OCCITANIE / Pyrénées-Méditerranée, Sète (2018); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville (2018); University Art Museum, Albany State University, Albany (2018); Mana Contemporary, Jersey City (2018); New Museum, New York (2017); Tramway, Glasgow (2017); Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London (2017); The Museum of Sex, New York (2017), Art and Practice, Los Angeles (2016), The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2016).

 

Mission Statement:

My current body of work is concerned with the iconographic significance of the Black female body in contemporary culture. My work explores the emotional, physical and psychological impact of the Black female body as icon, and is primarily devoted to examining the intersectionality of race, gender and sexuality. Collective fantasies surround the Black body, and have created a cultural niche in which exists our contemporary understanding of Black femininity. My practice is dedicated to naming this phenomenon.

The emotional, physical and psychological implications of the figure’s fashioning gives way to existential concerns. In each work, there exists a tension between foreground and background that mirrors the character’s position in the larger social context. As silhouettes emerge and disintegrate into the pictorial plane, the politics of identity jump to the surface. Shown in unison, the characters, articulated through stitch and textile assemblage, create a community and hold space for varied iterations of a shared experience.

The fantasies and attitudes surrounding the Black female body are both accepted and rejected within my practice, and through this disorientation, new possibilities arise. I am attempting to provide alternative, and perhaps fictional explanations for the voyeuristic tendencies towards the gendered and racialized body; a body which is both exalted and abject.

I aspire to hold space and create a cultural vacuum in which these bodies can exist for their own pleasure and self-realization. Free from other’s assertions and the othering gaze. I hope to redirect misconceptions propagated within and projected upon the Black body. Multiplicity and possibility are essential to my practice and general philosophy. My subjects are fully aware of their conspicuousness and are unmoved by the viewer. Their role is not to show, explain, or perform but rather “to be.”

In being, their presence is acknowledged and their significance felt.

Credits

Design: WeShouldDoItAll
Development: Maria Adelaide

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