Tariku Shiferaw Hands on the Wheel (School boy Q)

Tariku Shiferaw
Ethiopian
b.1983
Hands on the Wheel (School Boy Q)

signed (on the reverse)
acrylic on stretched plastic
60 by 40cm., 23⅝ by 15¾in.
Executed in 2017

Please note this work will ship from London, UK.

Condition Report:
This work appears to be in very good condition.

Catalogue Note:
Tariku Shiferaw’s signature mark-making addresses the physical and metaphysical spaces of painting and social structures. His compositions often juxtapose unevenly stacked black horizontal bars atop fields of blue canvas. This mark making follows the traditions of cave markings. In the words of Shiferaw, “it reveals the thinker behind the gesture – evidence of prior markings of ideas and self onto the space.” Shiferaw creates this formal language of geometric abstraction through densely layering material to create his marks, which interrogates the hierarchy of systems, subtly referencing the hues of relationships: black bodies and blue uniforms. The horizontal bars of his compositions are also heavily coded in a visual language. Operating like scripts or texts redacted, the works come to resemble deletions or erasures, imbuing his works with conceptual ideas of historical erasures.

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and raised in Los Angeles, Tariku Shiferaw is currently based in New York. He finds inspiration from his diverse backgrounds, particularly in media such as music and language. The titles of his works often reference music, spanning Hip-hop, R&B, Blues, and Jazz, likewise, his paintings embody the struggles expressed by these black musicians.

Tariku Shiferaw graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and from Parsons New School for Design with a Master of Fine Arts. His work has been exhibited at numerous institutions such as the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Smithsonian Institution; the Zuckerman Museum of Art; The Drawing Center, and the 2017 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Provenance:
Private Collection, London