Tajh Rust - Bio & Works

Bio

Tajh Rust was born in 1989 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He graduated from The Cooper Union in 2011 with a BFA in Painting and Film and from Yale University in 2019 with a MFA in Painting. Rust's work have been exhibited across the USA, including at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, the Bronx Art Space, Rush Arts Philadelphia and Artspace in New Haven in a group show with national and international contemporary artists whose work interrogates society's obsession with tradition, policing and over-consumption.

Rust investigates the concept of representation and his environmental portrait paintings draw on film and literary references. He develops his portraits framed within both interior and outdoor spaces in collaboration with his subjects. While the portraits explore the relationship between black identity and space, he also works in multimedia assemblage investigating the lived experience and effects of American exceptionalism and whiteness in modern day America. Tajh Rust's most recent body of work is influenced by his experiences during his residency at Kehinde Wiley's Black Rock Senegal in Dakar. He lives and works in New Haven, USA.

Solo Exhibitions

2023

"Reflections", Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, USA

2022

"Somewhere in Between", Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2020

"Where We Meet", Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2019

"Eve", Sakhile&Me, Frankfurt, Germany
"Passages", Fridman Gallery, New York, USA
"Solo Presentation", Art Brussels (Stems Gallery), Brussels, Belgium

Group Exhibitions

2023

"Return the Gaze", Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, USA

2022

"Family Dinner: The Deep Connection of American Lived Experience", Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, USA
"Black Rock 40", Douta Seck, Dakar, Senegal
"Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami's Collection", Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, St. Miami, USA

2021

"Open Call", The Shed, New York, USA
"A Face Like Mine", Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, USA
"and I will wear you in my heart of heart", The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA

2019

"Group Presentation", NADA Miami (Stems Gallery), Miami, USA
"Permutations", Sibler Gallery, Goucher College, Baltimore, USA
"Vernacular Interior", Hales Gallery, New York, USA
"Group Presentation", 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (De Buck Gallery), New York, USA
"Conjuring Wholeness in the Wake of Rupture", De Buck Gallery, New York, USA
"Again, Always", Green Hall Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, USA

2018

"Group Presentation", UNTITLED (De Buck Gallery), Miami, USA
"Interwoven", Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, USA
"In Plain Sight/Site", Artspace, New Haven, USA
"Familiar Boundaries. Infinite Possibilities", August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Pittsburgh, USA
"Strange Beach", Fridman Gallery, New York, USA
"Mirrored By Nature", Welancora Gallery, Brooklyn, USA
"Giving Up the Ghost: Artifacts (A Study of Power and Solidarity Against White Violence in Modernity)", Rush Arts Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA

2017

"Winterfly Benefit", Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, USA
"Black At Yale", Afro-American Cultural Center Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, USA
"Make___Place", The New York Immigrant Coalition, New York, USA
"Voices Need Heroes", NURTUREart, Brooklyn, USA

2016

"Speak Out", Bronx Art Space, Bronx, USA