Born 1988 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY.
EDUCATION
2014 MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
2010 BA, The Cooper Union School of Art, New York, NY
SOLO & DUO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Scorched Earth, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris, Public Art Fund, New York, NY & Chicago, IL
2020
Mystic Parallax, The FLAG Foundation, New York, NY
Solo presentation at Independent, New York, NY
2019
Smokes of Anomy, site-specific installation, The Bronx, NY
2018
Night Gallery at EXPO Chicago, Chicago, IL
慢慢燃燒 Slow Burn, Ben Brown Gallery, Hong Kong
2017
Menace II Society, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Purple Reign, Stems, Brussels, Belgium
Make America Great Again, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom
2016
I Was Going To Call It Your Name, but You Didn’t Let Me, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami, FL
Bad II The Bone, Duchamp Detox Clinic, presented by Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015
New Flower | Images of the Reclining Venus, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
Serendipity, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2014
The Only Way is Up, Hasted Kraeutler, New York, NY
DIP + DROP, Rivington Design House gallery, New York, NY
2012
Awol Erizku: Thank You, Come Again!, Rivington Design House gallery, New York, NY
Black & Gold, Hasted Kraeutler, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Église Sainte-Anne d’Arles, Arles, France
Delusionarium 5 (Adaptation), co-curated by Jesse Benson and Becky Koblick, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Springweather and people, Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY
2020
Majeure Force, Part One, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Uptown Triennial 2020, Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, New York, NY
2019
Small Talk, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AR
Desire in Art from the 20th Century to the Digital Age, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2018
Believe, curated by David Liss, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto, ON
Reclamation! Pan-African Works from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
2017
AMERICAN AFRICAN AMERICAN, Phillips,Berkeley Square, London, United Kingdom
2015
Photography Now: An International Survey, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom
ReSignifications, Museo Stefano Bardini, Florence, Italy
In the Paint: Basketball in Contemporary Art, The William Benton Museum of Art at UConn, Storrs, CT
2014
Deep End: Yale MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by Awol Erizku, Diane Rosenstein Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Deep End: Yale MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by Roe Ethridge, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
Deep End: Yale MFA Photography Thesis Exhibition, Green Hall Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT
13 Artists, curated by Awol Erizku, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2013
Personal, Political, Mysterious, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
For Ed: Splendor in the Grass with Olympic Lad & Lass, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
MFA 14 show, Yale school of Art, New Haven, CT
2011
Milk Underground Preview, MILK Gallery LA, Los Angeles, CA
Art2, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
Milk Underground Preview, MILK Gallery NY, New York, NY
2010
The Cooper Union School of Art, End of the Year Exhibition, New York, NY
The Living Theater Gallery, New York, NY
2009
The Cooper Union School of Art, End of the Year Exhibition, New York, NY
La MaMa Gallery, New York, NY
Great Hall Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Brooklyn Collective, New York, NY
The Cooper Union School of Art, End of the Year Exhibition, New York, NY
Lubalin Center, New York, NY
2007
Retro Kidz, The Cooper Union School of Art, New York, NY
LECTURES AND SPECIAL PROJECTS
2018
“Ruth E. Carter’s Threads of History,” Portfolio in The New Yorker by Awol Erizku, text by Doreen St. Félix, September 10 print edition
“Project: Awol Erizku,” Portfolio in Artforum, September issue
“Artists on Artists: Awol Erizku on Adrián Villar Rojas,” Lecture at MOCA Los Angeles, March
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2021
Caroline Goldstein, “Awol Erizku’s Strange, Striking Photographs Will Grace Hundreds of Bus Shelters Across New York and Chicago,” Artnet News, February 25
Diana Budds, “Awol Erizku Brings His Afrocentric Symbolic Universe to New York City’s Bus Shelters,” Curbed, February 23
Claire Selvin, "As Indoor Spaces Face Restrictions, Public Art Plays a Vital Role in Pandemic-Era New York,” ARTnews, February 12
Mark Westall, “Amanda Gorman, Photographed by Artist Awol Erizku for Time Cover,” Fad Magazine, February 8
Sanya Mansoor, “The Story Behind TIME’s Amanda Gorman Cover,” TIME Magazine, February 3
2020
The Editors of GQ, “Creativity in the Time of Quarantine,” GQ, May 14
“9 Things to See at the Independent Art Fair this Weekend,” Art in America, March 7
2019
Helen Holmes, “Public Art Fund’s 2020 Exhibitions Will Include Awol Erizku’s Photos Taken in US Prisons,” Observer, November 19
Gemma Tipton, “Why Does the Heart Want What It Wants?” The Irish Times, September 7
Jennifer Fernandez, “A Statement-Making Home with a World-Class Art Collection,” Architectural Digest, August 16
“Arts Power 50: The Changemakers Shaping the Art World in 2019,” Observer, April 1
2018
Paul Laster, “See Highlights of EXPO Chicago 2018,” Galerie Magazine, October 1
“The Best of EXPO Chicago 2018,” Surface Magazine, September 27
Marianna Cerni, “Awol Erizku: This Los Angeles Artist is Throwing Out All the Rules,” Hong Kong Tatler, June 27
Victoria L. Valentine, “The Month in African American Art: Here’s What Happened in February 2018,” Culture Type, February 28
Kevin McGarry, “Hedi Slimane Photographs a New Class of Los Angeles Artists,” Garage, February 7
“Art Industry News: Artists Condemn Christoph Büchel’s Trump Border Wall Project + More Must-Read Stories,” Artnet News, February 7
Brad Wheeler, “Museum of Contemporary Art plans housewarming party after 'pretty intense’ relocation project,” The Globe and Mail, January 31
Merry Whyte, “MOCA Toronto announces opening date and inaugural show,” The Star, January 30
2017
Artsy Editors, “The Year in Visual Culture,” Artsy, December 22
Alison S. Cohn, “Getting in a Holiday Frame of Mind,” The New York Times, December 13
Tomi, "These 11 Laudable Individuals of African Heritage Featured on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Lists,” Culture Custodian, November
Antwaun Sargent, "Menace II Art History," LALA, October
Andy Campbell, "Critics' Pick: Awol Erizku," Artforum, September
Talia Smith, "Awol Erizku is Fixing The Modern Art World," Nylon, September 15
Colin Gleadell, “Record-breaking artworks set for auction in New York; sell-out show for
Awol Erizku; Thaddaeus Ropac opens in London," The Telegraph, April 24
Isobel Thompson, “Awol Erizku, Beyoncé’s Instagram Portrait Artist, Will Hate This Headline
About His Trump-Inspired London Show,” Vanity Fair, April 21
Phoebe Parke, “Awol Erizku opens first European show, slams Trump,” CNN, April 21
Anny Shaw, “Artist who shot Beyoncé’s maternity photographs takes on Trump on London show,” The Art Newspaper, April 18
Caroline Roux, “Baring Beyoncé and trumping Trump: Awol Erizku is taking on America,” The Telegraph, April 13
Sarah Cascone, “From Beyoncé’s Bump to Anti-Trump: Artist Awol Erizku Seizes the Spotlight Again,” Artnet News, April 11
Jory Finkel, “Beyoncé’s Pregnancy Photographer Is Opening an ‘Anti-Trump’ Art Show”, The New York Times, April 10
Alina Cohen, “10 Places to See Public Art in 2017”, The New York Times Style Magazine, January 19
2016
Steven Nelson, “Vision & Justice: Awol Erizku”, Aperture, Summer Marlene Zwirner, “Curb Appeal”, Cultured Magazine, April / May
Rain Embuscado, “10 Black Artists to Celebrate in 2016”, Artnet News, February 13
Charlotte Jansen, “Street talk: Awol Erizku fills a conceptual gallery with work inspired by LA turf,” Wallpaper, January 22
Janelle Zara, “Inside Awol Erizku’s Duchamp Detox Clinic,” W Magazine, Jan 15
Antwaun Sargent, “Artist Awol Erizku’s ‘Bad II the Bone’ Takes Abstraction to the Streets,” Vice, January 14
2015
Jessica Lynne, “First Look: Awol Erizku”, Art in America, December 4
Janelle Zara, “Up and Coming: In Ethiopian Hotel Rooms, Awol Erizku Puts the Black Figure on a Pedestal,” Artsy, September 22
Antwaun Sargent, “Reimagining the Reclining Venus,” Interview Magazine, September 18
Tahirah Hairston, “Meet Awol Erizku, the Art World’s New It Boy,” Vulture / New York Magazine, May 21