Torkwase Dyson

Dates

Born 1973, Chicago

EDUCATION

2003, Painting/Printmaking Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, MFA

1999, Painting/Printmaking, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, BFA

1996, Sociology/Social Work Tougaloo College, Mississippi, BA

2021

Pace Live - Torkwase Dyson: Liquid A Place, Pace Gallery, Lower Ground Floor, 5 Hanover Square, London, Exhibition: October 8–November 6, 2021; Performances: October 7, 9 and 11, 2021. (Brochure and Dubplate)

Online: Torkwase Dyson: In Focus, Pace Gallery, October 8–November 6, 2021.

Torkwase Dyson: Breathtaking: On Black Beauty and Other Necessary Indeterminacies (Spatial Test With Drawing, _001), 2021, Serpentine Pavilion, Serpentine Galleries, London, September 25–October 17, 2021.

Torkwase Dyson, Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg, Germany, opens on September 3, 2021. (Catalogue)

2020

Torkwase Dyson: Studies for Bird and Lava, Pace Gallery, 68 Park Place, East Hampton, New York, August 1–9, 2020.

Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought | 15 Paintings for the Plantationocene, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, January 24–April 19 (extended to December 31), 2020.

2019

Torkwase Dyson, I Can Drink the Distance: Plantationocene in 2 Acts, Co-presentation by Pace Live and Performa, 7th Floor, 540 West 25th Street, New York, Exhibition: November 19–December 10, 2019; Performances: November 19 and 22, 2019.

Torkwase Dyson - 1919: Black Water, Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, Columbia University, September 27–December 14, 2019. (Booklet)

Torkwase Dyson: I Can Drink the Distance, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, The Cooper Union, New York, March 26–April 25, 2019.

2018

Torkwase Dyson: Nautical Dusk, William D. Adams Gallery, Colby Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, Maine, October 4, 2019–January 6, 2019.

Scalar, Suzanne Lemerg Usdan, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, September 18–December 15, 2018.

Torkwase Dyson: James Madison Dyson, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, September 14–October 27, 2018.

Torkwase Dyson and the Wynter-Wells Drawing School, Graham Foundation, Chicago, May 3–July 28, 2018.

Torkwase Dyson: Dear Henry, Davidson Contemporary, New York, March 15–May 5, 2018.

Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought and the Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice, The Drawing Center, New York, February 24–March 11, 2018.

2017

Torkwase Dyson: Hidden in Plain Site: Black Paintings, Texas Tech University, College of Visual + Performing Arts, School of Art, Landmark Gallery, Lubbock, 2017.

2016

Torkwase Dyson: Illegal Abstraction: A Single Author, Hemphill Fine Arts 1700 L St., Washington D.C., October 27, 2016–January 27, 2017.

Torkwase Dyson: Mine Mind, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia, May 27–June 23, 2016.

Torkwase Dyson: Unkeeping, Industry City Gallery/Eyebeam, New York, March 9–April 12, 2016.

2014

Mine: a solo exhibition by Torkwase Dyson, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, October 2015.

2008

Torkwase Dyson: Hereinafter, Meat Market Gallery, Washington D.C., 2008.

2006

Torkwase Dyson: Ding, Bling, Splash: Hurray You’re Rich, Ty Stokes Gallery, Atlanta, 2006.

Torkwase Dyson: Oil and Water Don’t Mix, Ty Stokes Gallery, Atlanta, 2006.

2022

Living with Ghosts, Pace Gallery, London, July 8–August 5, 2022.

SET IT OFF: Curated by Racquel Chevremont & Mickalene Thomas—Collectively Known as Deux Femmes Noires, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, May 22–July 24, 2022.

A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration, The Mississippi Museum of Art, Mississippi (co-organizer), April 9–September 11, 2022. Traveling to: Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland (co-organizer), October 2022. (Catalogue)

Ninth Street and Beyond: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction: Part II: Geometry, Hunter/Dunbar Projects, New York, April 14–May 25, 2022.

Lux et Veritas, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, April 2–October 23, 2022.

2021

Hiding in Plain Sight, Pace Gallery, 540 West 25th Street, New York, July 14–August 21, 2021. (Booklet)

Bodies of Water: The 13th Shanghai Biennale - Phase 03: An Exhibition, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, April 17–July 25, 2021.

Stories of Resistance, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri, March 12–August 15, 2021. (Catalogue)

Ninth Street and Beyond: 70 Years of Women in Abstraction, Part I: The Gestural, Hunter Dunbar Projects, New York, March 3–April 9, 2022.

Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment, Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, January 30, 2021–May 9, 2021. (Brochure)

2020

Drawing 2020, Gladstone Gallery, New York, September 24–December 2020. (Catalogue)

Catalyst: Art and Social Justice, Gracie Mansion Conservancy, New York, February 20, 2020–September 8, 2021.

2019

Count of Three, Alexander Gray Associates, New York, April 18–May 24, 2019.

Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, March 8–August 25, 2019.

Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, March 7–June 10, 2019.

2018

Out of Easy Reach, Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago, August 24–October 4, 2018. (Catalogue)

The Last Place They Thought Of, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, April 27–August 12, 2018. (Leaflet)

Primary, Korn Gallery, Dorothy Young Center for the Arts, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, March 22–April 25, 2018.

Between the Waters, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 9–July 22, 2018.

2017

Lack of Location is My Location, Koenig & Clinton, New York, November 3, 2017–January 14, 2018.

On Documentary Abstraction, Art Center South Florida, Miami, September 30, 2017–January 2, 2018.

35 Days, Hemphill Fine Art, Washington, D.C., June 24–August 11, 2017.

Works on Water 2017, 3LD Art & Technology Center, New York, June 5–30, 2017.

Stacked, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, May 11–June 17, 2017.

Invisible Man, Maros Gallery, New York, May 3–June 24, 2017.

Dialogues In Drawing, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, March 16–May 23, 2017.

x y: An Act of Translation, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York, February 17–March 26, 2017.

The Future is Abstract, Harvey B. Gantt Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 28–July 8, 2017.

2016

In Conditions of Freshwater, Duke University, Center for Documentary Studies, Durham, North Carolina, March 2–June 10, 2017.

Grey Scale, PostMasters Gallery, New York, June 24–August 20, 2016.

The Block Party, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, July 14–mid-August 2016.

2015

A Constellation, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, November 14, 2015–March 6, 2016. (Catalogue)

Eyebeam Annual Showcase, 101 Front St. Galleries Brooklyn, January 29–February 21, 2015.

Outside In, South Street Seaport Cultural Building, New York, October 2–November 13, 2015.

EAF 15: 2015 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York, September 27, 2015–March 16, 2016.

2014

Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition, Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, Minnesota, 2014.

Africa Extended, United Nations, New York, 2014.

2011

Material Girls: Contemporary Black Women Artists, Reginald F. Lewis Museum Baltimore, February 12–October 16, 2011. (Catalogue)

2010

Monastic Residency: Torkwase Dyson: Whitney Biennial 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 7–9, 2010.

2008

It Might Blow Up, But It Won’t Go Pop, African American Art Museum, Dallas, 2008

Passin’ It On, Rush Arts Gallery New York, 2008.

Ephemerality, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia, January 12–April 12, 2008.

Spectrum-ed, Flanders Art Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina, June 1–July 1, 2008.

She’s So Articulate: Black Women Artists Reclaim the Narrative, Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington, Virginia, June 10–July 19, 2008. (Catalogue)

2007

The Velocity of Gesture, or How to Build an Empire, The Dalton Gallery, Decatur, Georgia, Spring 2007.

2006

Magic Realism: Relationships to Caribbean and Latin Literature, Rush Arts, 2006.

Art Institute of Chicago

Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont

The Long Museum, Shanghai

Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Washington, D.C.

The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

2021

Fite-Wassilak, Chris. “London Round-up" (Pace Gallery exhibition review). Art Agenda, 20 October 2021.

Ghassemitari, Shawn. “Torkwase Dyson Comments on Spatial Inequities at Pace London” (Pace Gallery exhibition review). Hypebeast, 12 October 2021. https://hypebeast.com/2021/10/torkwase-dyson-in-focus-pace-gallery-london-exhibition

Gerlis, Melanie. "Pace's next generation." Financial Times, 9 October 2021: 5, illustrated. Web version: https://www.ft.com/content/5acbc373-4309-439d-9cee-d5c21e96b78f

Lloyd-Smith, Harriet. “Torkwase Dyson and Mark Rothko inaugurate Pace gallery’s new London home” (Pace Gallery exhibition preview). Wallpaper, 8 October 2021. https://www.wallpaper.com/art/pace-gallery-london-opening-torkwase-dyson-mark-rothko

Rappolt, Mark. “Torkwase Dyson: the Shape of Water” (Pace Gallery exhibition preview). ArtReview, 7 October 2021. https://artreview.com/torkwase-dyson-shape-of-water/

Morris, Kadish. “Liquid liberation: artist Torkwase Dyson on her aquatic obsession” (Pace Gallery exhibition preview). The Guardian, 4 October 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/oct/04/liquid-liberation-artist-torkwase-dyson-on-her-aquatic-obsession

Dyson, Torkwase. “On Hyper Shapes.” Metropolis, July/August 2021: 160, illustrated.

Westall, Mark. “Pace to Launch New London Space with Rothko & Torkwase Dyson Presentation” (Pace Gallery exhibition preview). FAD Magazine, 4 June 2021. https://fadmagazine.com/2021/06/04/pace-to-launch-new-london-space-with-rothko-torkwase-dyson-presentations/

2020

Barrila, Silvia Anna. “Vendite vivaci a Frieze online nella fascia alta.” Il Sole 24 Ore, 9 May 2020.

Donoghue, Katy. “A Few Finds in Frieze New York’s Online Viewing Rooms.” Whitewall, 6 May 2020. https://www.whitewall.art/art/finds-frieze-new-yorks-online-viewing-rooms

Duron, Maximiliano and Angelica Villa. “Frieze New York Moves Online with Brisk Sales and Blue-Chip Art.” ARTnews, 6 May 2020. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/frieze-new-york-2020-online-sales-report-1202686227/

Lescaze, Zoë. “12 Artists On: The Financial Crisis.” T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 21 July 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/t-magazine/art-financial-crisis.html

Perry, Barlo. “Torkwase Dyson and Hans Ulrich Obrist.” Paris LA, 29 March 2020. https://www.paris-la.com/torkwase-dyson-and-hans-ulrich-obrist/

Schuster, Angela M. H. “In the Studio: Torkwase Dyson Got Certified as an Open-Water Diver to get Closer to her Subject” (Pace Gallery exhibition review). Avenue Magazine (September/October 2020): 30–33, illustrated.

Tauer, Kristen. “Torkwase Dyson’s Latest Work Takes Shape in ‘Studies for Bird and Lava” (Pace Gallery exhibition review). WWD, 13 August 2020. https://wwd.com/eye/people/torkwase-dyson-pace-gallery-studies-for-bird-and-lava-1203698174/

“Torkwase Dyson” (New Orleans Museum of Art exhibition preview). Wall Street International Magazine, 4 January 2020. https://wsimag.com/art/60011-torkwase-dyson

“Turbulent Decades” (Pace Gallery online exhibition review). Aesthetica, 16 May 2020.

2019

Long, Monique. “Torkwase Dyson tells the history of black liberation through cartographic art” (Columbia University exhibition review). Document Journal, 27 September 2019.

Miller, Nicole. “Torkwase Dyson’s New Show is an Abstract Meditation on the Racial Violence of the 1919 Red Summer” (Columbia University’s Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery exhibition review). Art in America (December 2019): 101, illustrated.

“Portfolio: Tuning by Torkwase Dyson” (Graham Foundation exhibition review). Bomb Magazine, 11 July 2019. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/portfolio-torkwase-dyson/

Wolpow, Nina. “Torkwase Dyson: 1919: Blackwater” (Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery exhibition review). The Brooklyn Rail, November 2019. https://brooklynrail.org/2019/11/artseen/Torkwase-Dyson-1919-Blackwater

Zacks, Stephen. “Is Torkwase Dyson's abstract recount of racial violence a missed opportunity?” (Columbia University exhibition review). The Architect’s Newspaper, 21 October 2019. https://archpaper.com/2019/10/is-torkwase-dysons-1991-black-water/

2018

Binlot, Ann. “Virgil Abloh and Grace Wales Bonner Imagine Their Ideal Cities.” Document Journal, 10 December 2018. https://www.documentjournal.com/2018/12/virgil-abloh-and-grace-wales-bonner-imagine-their-ideal-cities/

Dyson, Torkwase, Elisabeth Sherman and Margaret Cross. “Between the Waters Roundtable.” Whitney Museum of American Art, 2018. https://whitney.org/Essays/BetweenTheWaters

Dyson, Torkwase. “Unlearning America’s History with Torkwase Dyson.” Elephant, 20 June 2018. https://elephant.art/studio-visit-torkwase-dyson/

Grabner, Michelle. “Torkwase Dyson Rhona Hoffman Gallery” (exhibition review). Artforum (January 2019). https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/201901/torkwase-dyson-78033

Vermeulen, Heather V. “Space as Place, Scalar as Vector: Torkwase Dyson’s (Black) Abstraction,” Exhibition essay for Torkwase Dyson: Scalar, Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, North Bennington, Vermont, September—December 2018.

2017

Pedro, Laila. “When Conceptual Art Makes You Acutely Aware of Your Body” (Martos Gallery exhibition review). Hyperallergic, 9 June 2017. https://hyperallergic.com/384468/when-conceptual-art-makes-you-acutely-aware-of-your-body/

Pedor, Laila. “Threads of Fire and Water and Gold” (We Buy Gold exhibition review). The Brooklyn Rail, 1 April 2017. https://brooklynrail.org/2017/04/artseen/Threads-of-Fire-and-Water-and-Gold-ONE

Heinrich, Will. “What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week” (Martos Gallery exhibition review). The New York Times, 25 May 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/arts/design/what-to-see-in-new-york-art-galleries-this-week.html

Schwendener, Martha. “10 Galleries to Visit Now in Brooklyn” (We Buy Gold exhibition review). The New York Times, 27 April 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/arts/design/10-galleries-to-visit-now-in-brooklyn.html

2016

Keeshin, Matthew and Torkwase Dyson. “This Art Studio Made from Upcycled Materials Hits the Highway.” Dwell, 2016. https://www.dwell.com/collection/this-art-studio-made-from-upcycled-materials-hits-the-highway-c6fcdc0f

Schwendener, Martha. “Torkwase Dyson, Unkeeping” (Eyebeam in Industry City exhibition review). The New York Times, 31 March 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/01/arts/design/art-galleries-nyc.html

Fowle, Alexandra. “Torkwase Dyson: Unkeeping” (Eyebeam in Industry City exhibition review). The Brooklyn Rail, April 2016. https://brooklynrail.org/2016/04/artseen/torkwase-dyson-unkeeping

Byrd, Cathy. “Materials Girls.” Sculpture Magazine, 2016: 64.

2013

Hirsh, Jennie. "Material Girls: Contemporary Black Women Artists” (Reginald F. Lewis Museum exhibition review). Art in America, November 2011. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/material-girls-contemporary-black-women-artists-61040/

Long, Monique. "Studio Visit.” Studio: The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine, Summer/Fall 2013: 48.

2009

Brady, Shaun. “You Can’t Take It with You: Philadelphia Artists Explores the Transience of Nature in ‘Ephemerality’” (The Schuylkill Center exhibition review). Philadelphia City Paper, 27 January 2009: 25.

2008

Dyson, Torkwase. “A Piercing Look at the World.” Interview with Jessica Dawson. The Washington Post, 27 July 2008: C12.

Dawson, Jessica. “Standing in the Shadow of the Silhouette Figure,” The Washington Post, 20 June 2008.

Frederick, Helen, “She’s So Articulate: Black Women Artists Reclaim the Narrative” (Arlington Art Center exhibition review). Art Papers 32, no. 5 (September/October 2008): 54.

2006

Feaster, Felicia. “Talk About the Work.” Creative Loafing, 12 July 2006: 25.

Feaster, Felicia. “Velocity of Gesture: Making Their Mark.” Creative Loafing, 14 February 2006: 36.

2021

Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment (exhibition catalogue). Columbus, Ohio: Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021: 31, illustrated.

Hiding in Plain Sight (exhibition booklet). Text by Andria Hickey. New York: Pace Gallery, 2021: 18–19, illustrated.

Torkwase Dyson (exhibition catalogue). New York: Hall Art Foundation, 2021.

2020

Drawing 2020 (exhibition catalogue). Text by Molly Nesbit. New York and Brussels, Köln, Germany: Gladstone Gallery, 2020: 50, illustrated.

2019

Torkwase Dyson - 1919: Black Water (exhibition booklet). Interviews with the artist by Mabel Wilson and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Text by William Tuttle, Jr. New York: Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, Columbia University, 2019.

2018

The Last Place They Thought Of (exhibition leaflet). Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 2018.

Out of Easy Reach (exhibition catalogue). Chicago: DePaul Art Museum; Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago; Rebuild Foundation, 2018.

2015

A Constellation (exhibition catalogue). New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 2015.

2012

Ayokunle Odeleye: Thirty Two Years of Public Art. Texts by Leroy Clarke, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Torkwase Dyson, and Andrea Barnwell Brownlee. Stone Mountain, Georgia and Garland, Texas: Odeleye Sculpture Studios; Cenveo, 2012.

2011

Material Girls: Contemporary Black Women Artists (exhibition catalogue). Edited by Michelle Joan Wilkinson. Baltimore: Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, 2011.

2008

She's so articulate: Black Women Artists Reclaim the Narrative (exhibition catalogue). Arlington: Arlington Arts Center, 2008.