Tavares Strachan
A Children's History of Invisibility, 2016
Mixed media, 26 units
11 x 7 3/4 x 2 inches each unit
27.9 x 19.7 x 5.1 cm each unit
Edition 6 of 12, with 2 AP's
Tavares Strachan (b. 1979) lives and works in New York, NY. Strachan received an Associate of Fine Arts degree in Painting in 1999 from College of the Bahamas, Nassau, The Bahamas; he studied Liberal Arts in 2002 at Brown University, Providence, RI; received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003 from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; and received a Masters of Fine Art degree in 2006 from Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Strachan is the recipient of the 2018 Frontier Art Prize; the 2018 Allen Institute Inaugural Artist in Residence; the 2014 LACMA Art + Technology Lab Artist Grant; 2008 Tiffany Foundation Grant; the 2007 Grand Arts Residency Fellowship; the 2006 Alice B. Kimball Fellowship; the 2003 Distinguished Student Award, RISD; became a 2000 Roots Junkanoo Group, Member; the 2000 Queen Elizabeth Arts/Poetry Award; the 1998 Governor’s Award, The Governor General of the Bahamas; and the 1996 National Seal of the Bahamas, Stamp Design Award.
Strachan has had domestic and international exhibitions at Albury Sayle Primary School, Nassu, The Bahamas; Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; Bahamas Pavilion, the 58th and 55th Venice Biennales, Venice, Italy; Biennale De Lyon, Lyon, France; Central Bank Gallery, Nassau, The Bahamas; Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; Fergus McCaffrey, St. Barthélemy, Caribbean; Friedman Benda Gallery, New York, NY; Grand Arts, Kansas City, MOO; Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Pierogi 2000, Leipzig, Germany; Pro Gallery, Nassau, The Bahamas; Prospect 3. Biennale, New Orleans, LA;Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY; Rossi & Rossi, London, England; The Luggage Store, San Francisco, CA; and Undisclosed Exhibition, New York, NY.
Tavares Strachan is included in the exhibition "Soft Power" at the SFMOMA from 26 October 2019 to 17 February 2020.
The exhibition SOFT POWER is about the ways in which artists deploy art to explore their roles as citizens and social actors. Appropriated from the Reagan-era term used to describe how a country’s “soft” assets such as culture, political values, and foreign policies can be more influential than coercive or violent expressions of power, the title contemplates the potential of art and offers a provocation to the public to exert their own influence on the world. Taken together, the works in SOFT POWER demonstrate what cultural theorist and filmmaker Manthia Diawara has called a solidarity between intuitions — a concept that acknowledges the complexity, darkness, and opacity from which our reality emerges — that expresses the poetry and imagination of our differences.
Tavares Strachan is included in Desert X, a site-specific, international contemporary art exhibition for the California Desert.
Featuring commissioned artworks and installation projects by some of today’s most recognized international contemporary artists, Desert X will activate designated sites from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea. Planned education programs will explore the production, presentation and interpretation of experiential artworks created for spaces outside of traditional institutional boundaries and the challenges and inspiration offered by the desert. Curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield, Desert X's founding mission is to engage the specificity of the Coachella Valley's physical and social landscapes through artworks by acclaimed artists. Broadening an international audience for the area's rich cultural legacy, the exhibition will also shine a spotlight on the visual and performing arts of the area.
Initiating the education program last month, the Hammer Museum presented Conversations: Desert X Preview with Desert X Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Executive Director Elizabeta Betinski in conversation with participating artists Will Boone, Glenn Kaino, Sherin Guirguis and Tavares Strachan about their work and the cultural and philosophical issues that make the Coachella Valley a vibrant and exciting backdrop for the desert-wide exhibition.
