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Jamal Cyrus

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Jamal Cyrus (born 1973) is an American conceptual artist who works in a range of media, including drawing, sculpture, textiles, assemblage, installation, performance, and sound.[1][2][3] His artistic and research practices investigates the history, culture, and identity of the United States, questioning conventional narratives and foregrounding Black political movements, social justice concerns, and the experiences and impact of the African diaspora, including Black music.[1][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Biography

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Cyrus was born in Houston, Texas, where he lives and works.[6][11] He received a BFA from the University of Houston in 2004 before attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2005. In 2008, he graduated from the MFA program at the University of Pennsylvania.[12] Cyrus was an artist-in-residence at Artpace San Antonio in 2010 and a member of the Otabenga Jones and Associates artist collective from 2002 to 2017.[11][13]

Jamal Cyrus has been married to artist Leslie Hewitt since 2021.

Art Work

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Jamal Cyrus's "Pride Frieze—Jerry White’s Record Shop, Central Avenue, Los Angeles" (2005-17) is a work that demonstrates Cyrus's interest in historiography and archival research, sculpture and assemblage, and Black American history, especially music. It is a painstaking reconstruction of a record shop storefront Cyrus saw in a book, featuring a hybrid of real and imagined histories of the Detroit-based "Pride Records" label, with found album covers, altered album covers, and total inventions. This photo was shared in the promotional press packet for the announcement of Jamal Cyrus as the winner of the 6th BMW Art Journey and is one of his most recognizable works.

Cyrus's artistic practice is research-based; he makes use of physical and digital archives to investigate American history and historiography through the lens of Black oppression, liberation, and identity.[14][15][16] Working in a range of media and materials, his works combine found images, documents, and objects with paper, graphite, papyrus, denim, and other materials, and includes mixed-media installations, assemblages, sculptures, drawings, performances, sound, and video.[14][17][18] In referencing material and iconographic aspects of Black history alongside historical events, interpretations, tropes, fabulations, and mythologies, Cyrus's work addresses themes such as counterculture, surveillance, militancy, revolution, and consumerism.[14][17][19][20][21][22][23]

Exhibitions

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Cyrus has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows. His work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial, Art Basel Miami, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Akron Art Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Blaffer Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Asia Society, the New Museum, the Kitchen, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of London Docklands.[2][4][6][12][17][19][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]

In addition, as a member of Otabenga Jones and Associates, Cyrus exhibited at the High Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, the California African American Museum, and the Menil Collection, among other venues.[2][6][11]

Awards

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  • John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant (2023)[31][32][33]
  • David C. Driskell Prize (2020)[5][11]
  • Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2019)[34]
  • BMW Art Journey (2017-2018)[29][35]
  • Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2009)[36]
  • Artadia Houston Award (2006)[12]
  • Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2005)[37]

References

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  1. ^ a b Harper, Daria Simone (2022-07-14). "In Conversation with Jamal Cyrus". Burnaway. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  2. ^ a b c "Jamal Cyrus joins permanent collection". Ruby City. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  3. ^ Zastudil, Nancy (2022-04-12). "The Pace of Place: Jamal Cyrus at The Modern". Arts and Culture Texas. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  4. ^ a b Glentzer, Molly (2021-07-15). "Houston Artist Jamal Cyrus's Playful, Subversive Vision of Black History". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  5. ^ a b Valentine, Victoria L. (2020-02-13). "Houston-Based Artist Jamal D. Cyrus on Receiving 2020 David C. Driskell Prize: 'The Symbolism is Extremely Important to Me'". Culture Type. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  6. ^ a b c d "FOCUS: Jamal Cyrus". Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. 2022. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  7. ^ Tipton, Cammie (April 2022). "Jamal Cyrus". Public Art: University of Houston System. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  8. ^ Harris, Alysia Nicole (2022-11-17). "The Art of Black Regard". Scalawag. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  9. ^ Baker, Susan J. (2022). "Soundwaves: Experimental Strategies in Art + Music [Review]". Venue: A Digital Journal of the Midwest Art History Society. 1 (1): 154–159.
  10. ^ Beckwith, Naomi; Roelstraete, Dieter (2015). The freedom principle: experiments in art and music, 1965 to now. Chicago (Ill.) London: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in association with The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-31930-8.
  11. ^ a b c d "Jamal D. Cyrus". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  12. ^ a b c "Jamal Cyrus". Artadia. 2016-02-12. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  13. ^ "Jamal Cyrus". Inman Gallery. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  14. ^ a b c Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning [2002]. Los Angeles, CA: The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. 2022.
  15. ^ Chávez, Caitlin Duerler (2021-09-15). "New Historiography for Black Excellence: Jamal Cyrus "The End of My Beginning" at the Blaffer Art Museum". The Art Studio, Inc. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  16. ^ Cyrus, Jamal (2021). Bell, Eugenia (ed.). Jamal Cyrus: the end of my beginning. Blaffer Art Museum. Los Angeles, CA: Inventory Press. ISBN 978-1-941753-44-6.
  17. ^ a b c Dawkins, Chad (2023-04-11). "Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning". Art Papers. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  18. ^ Cotter, Holland (2012-11-29). "Racial Redefinition in Progress". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  19. ^ a b "Jamal Cyrus The End Of My Beginning". Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  20. ^ Sealy, Mark, ed. (2020). African cosmologies: photography, time and the other. Amsterdam, NL: Schilt Publishing. ISBN 978-90-5330-932-2.
  21. ^ Lee, Pamela M. (2020). Think Tank Aesthetics: Midcentury Modernism, the Cold War, and the Neoliberal Present. MIT Press. p. 228. ISBN 9780262357036.
  22. ^ Barrett, David (March 2019). "We are the people. Who are you?". Art Monthly (424): 22–23. ProQuest 2224923414 – via ProQuest.
  23. ^ Stabler, Bert; Waits, Mira Rai (Summer 2022). "Introduction to Visual Arts Research Special Issue, Body Cam: The Visual Regimes of Policing". Visual Arts Research. 48 (1): 1–16. doi:10.5406/21518009.48.1.01. S2CID 248929653.
  24. ^ "Jamal Cyrus". P.5 Yesterday We Said Tomorrow. Archived from the original on 2023-05-22. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  25. ^ "Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning". Mississippi Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  26. ^ "Slowed and Throwed: Records of the City Through Mutated Lenses". Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  27. ^ "Jamal Cyrus". The Whitney 2006 Biennial: Day for Night. 2006. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  28. ^ "Jamal Cyrus". The Studio Museum in Harlem. 2020-09-10. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  29. ^ a b "Jamal Cyrus wins BMW's sixth Art Journey award". Art Basel. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  30. ^ "Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning". Blaffer Art Museum. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  31. ^ Dansby, Andrew (2023-04-06). "Houston playwright, visual artist awarded Guggenheim Fellowship for their work in the arts". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  32. ^ Hawley, Rebecca (May 17, 2023). "Alumnus Reflects on Guggenheim Fellowship". University of Houston. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  33. ^ "Guggenheim Fellowships Recipients Announced, Jamal Cyrus, Kapwani Kiwanga and Pamela Council are Among the Winners". Widewalls. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  34. ^ "Jamal Cyrus". Joan Mitchell Foundation. 2019-09-25. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  35. ^ "Jamal Cyrus". BMW Art Journey. Archived from the original on 2023-05-22. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  36. ^ Brennan, Samia. "Smithsonian Awards Fellowships to 10 Artists to Conduct Research at Museums and Research Facilities". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  37. ^ "Jamal Cyrus". The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
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