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“That idea that you can claim your own history is really important. We are all coming from somewhere, and sometimes it’s necessary to be lost, so that you can figure out things for yourself. I feel like that’s what art should be about.” —Nari Ward
The first solo museum exhibition of acclaimed Jamaican-born, New York City-based artist Nari Ward (b. 1963) recently opened at the New Museum in New York City. Nari Ward: We the People runs through May 26, 2019, and follows on the heels of his acclaimed traveling exhibition Sun Splashed, which was organized by the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2015, and traveled to The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia in 2016, and to the ICA Boston in 2017. Bringing this show to the New Museum is fitting, as Ward first exploded into prominence with his seminal work Amazing Grace, which was first exhibited in an abandoned Harlem fire station in 1993 – also the same year as Ward’s first outing at the New Museum – and was then recreated 20 years later in the New Museum’s landmark 2013 exhibition NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star.
In 2017, Ward was also the recipient of the Vilcek Prize in Fine Art, which recognizes the contributions of immigrants throughout American, in the fields of arts and sciences. In this video from the Vilcek Foundation, Ward discusses the experience of seeing several decades of work in one place, describes a key works in the exhibition, and shares the value of finding and creating identity through art.
