DX Torkwase Dyson 1 Lance Gerber - 3000px

Torkwase Dyson, Liquid a Place, Desert X, Palm Desert © Torkwase Dyson. Photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X

Torkwase Dyson

Portrait of Torkwase Dyson

Details:

b. 1973, Chicago, Illinois

Torkwase Dyson describes herself as a painter working across multiple mediums to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture.

Examining the history and future of black spatial liberation strategies, Dyson’s abstract works grapple with the ways in which space is perceived and negotiated, particularly by black and brown bodies. The artist has distilled a vocabulary of poetic forms to address the spaciousness of freedom and question what type of climates are born out of world building.

Dyson studied sociology, social work, and fine arts at Tougaloo College in Mississippi (1996), received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia (1999), and an MFA from the Yale School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut (2003). She has held solo exhibitions at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago (2018); The Drawing Center, New York (2018); New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana (2020); Serpentine Galleries, London (2021); Hall Art Foundation, Schloss Derneburg, Germany (2021); Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (2023); and 'T' Space, Rhinebeck, New York (2023); among others. Dyson was also part of the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2021); 12th Liverpool Biennial, United Kingdom (2023); 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art (2023); and the 81st Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2024). In May 2025, the artist debuted Akua, her first major installation with sound in New York City, at Brooklyn Bridge Park, commissioned by the Public Art Fund. Dyson also created the conceptual design for Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, the Costume Institute's Spring 2025 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which will trace the cultural and historical significance of the Black Dandy from the 18th century to the present day.

Dyson’s work is held in notable public collections worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago; Hall Collection, Derneburg, Germany, and Reading, Vermont; Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Long Museum, Shanghai; Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.

Liquid Shadows, Solid Dreams (A Monastic Playground) by Torkwase Dyson

Torkwase Dyson, Liquid Shadows, Solid Dreams (A Monastic Playground), 2024. Installation view, Hyundai Terrace, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Sep 25, 2024 – Feb 2, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art © Torkwase Dyson

Installation view of Liquid a Place by Torkwase Dyson

Torkwase Dyson, Liquid a Place, 2021. Installation view, Torkwase Dyson: Liquid a Place, Pace Gallery, London, Oct 8 – Nov 6, 2021 © Torkwase Dyson

1

Torkwase Dyson, I Belong to the Distance, 2019. Installation view, Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation © Torkwase Dyson

3

Installation view, The 13th Shanghai Biennale: Bodies of Water, Apr 16 – Jul 25, 2021, Power Station of Art, Shanghai © Torkwase Dyson

Torkwase_Dyson_Baranova-5263-High+Resolution+—+300+dpi+.jpg

Torkwase Dyson, I Can Drink the Distance: Plantationocene in 2 Acts, featuring Deja Smith, Arthur Jafa, and Gaika, Performed at Pace Gallery on November 22, 2019

20221110_DYSON Install_FL1_v08

Torkwase Dyson, Liveness (Multi-Scalar Motion #1), 2022. Installation view, Torkwase Dyson: A Liquid Belonging, Pace Gallery, 540 West 25th Street, Nov 11 – Dec 17, 2022 © Torkwase Dyson. Photo by Melissa Goodwin

20221110_DYSON Install_FL7_v06-edited

Torkwase Dyson, Beloved Stillness (Hypershape), 2022. Installation view, Torkwase Dyson: A Liquid Belonging, Pace Gallery, 540 West 25th Street, Nov 11 – Dec 17, 2022 © Torkwase Dyson. Photo by Melissa Goodwin

4

Installation view, Stories of Resistance, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Mar 12 – Aug 15, 2021 © Torkwase Dyson. Photo by Dusty Kessler

5

Torkwase Dyson, Dark Black (Bird and Lava), 2021. Installation view, Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Jan 30 – May 9, 2021 © Torkwase Dyson. Photo by Luke Stettner, courtesy Wexner Center for the Arts

2

Installation view, Torkwase Dyson: I Can Drink the Distance, Mar 26 – Apr 25, 2019, The Cooper Union, New York © Torkwase Dyson, courtesy The Cooper Union

7

Installation View, Torkwase Dyson, Hall Art Foundation | Schloss Derneburg Museum, Derneburg, Germany, Sep 3, 2021 – May 15, 2022 © Torkwase Dyson. Photo by Volker Crone, courtesy Hall Art Foundation

8

Torkwase Dyson, Way Over There Inside Me (A Festival of Inches). Installation view, A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration, Baltimore Museum of Art, Oct 30, 2022 – Jan 29, 2023 © Torkwase Dyson. Photo by Mitro Hood, courtesy Baltimore Museum of Art