Born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas
Lives and works between New York, USA and Nassau, Bahamas
Tavares Strachan’s conceptual, interdisciplinary practice activates connections between art, science, history, and cultural critique to mobilize our senses, intellect and curiosity, asking us to consider our own relationship to what is seen and what is unseen.
Themes of invisibility, displacement and loss are elemental to Strachan’s investigations, which question ensconced systems and truisms by reframing canonized bodies of histories, and unsettling the conditions by which some are legitimized and others obscured. He uses the rubric of received knowledge to make networks and structures of power more visible, and to bring to light forgotten or little-known historical epics and human achievements. Aeronautical exploration, expeditions to desolate locations and extreme environments, and allegories of the human aspiration to surmount mortal limitations and adverse circumstances, are some of his settings for telling the history of the invisible.
Strachan embodies the migratory, cross-cultural, multidisciplinary, and open-ended nature of contemporary artmaking. Extensively researched, his projects are, oftentimes, monumental in scale and scope, and realized in collaboration with specialists and organizations across a wide spectrum of fields. He draws on both the resources and community of his birthplace, dividing his time between New York and Nassau in the Bahamas, where he has established art studio and scientific research platform B.A.S.E.C. (Bahamas Aerospace and Sea Exploration Center) and OKU, a not-for-profit community project encompassing an artist residency and exhibition spaces, a scholarship scheme, and after-school creative programs.
education
2006
- MFA in Sculpture, Yale School of Art, Yale University
2003
- BFA in Glass, Rhode Island School of Design
solo shows
2022
- In Broad Daylight, Perrotin, Paris, France
- In Total Darkness, Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris, France
- The Awakening, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York City, USA
2021
- Belong / Brooklyn (commissioned outdoor installation) | Barclays Center, New York City, USA
2020
- In Plain Sight, Marian Goodman Gallery, London, UK
2018
- Invisibles, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, USA
- In Broad Daylight (commissioned outdoor installation) | Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, USA
- The Other Side Of The Sun, Mestre Projects, Nassau, The Bahamas
- Always, Sometimes, Never, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, USA
2017
- I Am (commissioned outdoor installation) | The 1st Desert X, Coachella Valley, California, USA
2015
- How To Make Someone Invisible, Fergus McCaffrey, St. Barthélemy
- Seeing Is Forgetting The Thing That You Saw, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, USA
2014
- You Belong Here (commissioned outdoor installation) | Prospect.3 Triennial: Notes For Now, New Orleans, USA
2013
- The Immeasurable Daydream | The 12th Biennale de Lyon: Meanwhile… Suddenly, And Then, Lyon, France
- The 1st Bahamas Pavilion: Polar Eclipse | The 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia: Il Palazzo Enciclopedico / The Encyclopedic Palace, Venice, Italy
2012
- I Belong Here (presented by Anthony Meier Fine Arts), Art Basel Miami Beach, USA
- Here And Now, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011
- Seen/Unseen, undisclosed location, New York City, USA
- Sometimes Lies Are Prettier, Rossi & Rossi, London, UK
2010
- Orthostatic Tolerance: It Might Not Be Such A Bad Idea If I Never Went Home, MIT List Visual Arts Center | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
- Orthostatic Tolerance: Launching Into An Infinite Distance, Grand Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
2009
- The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (Arctic Art Project), Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York City, USA
- You Can Do Whatever You Like (The Orthostatic Tolerance Project), Institute of Contemporary Art | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
2008
- Tavares Strachan, Pierogi 2000, Leipzig, Germany
- A Hundred Years, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2006
- The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (presented by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts and Pierogi 2000), Miami, USA
- Where We Are Is Always Miles Away, The Luggage Store, San Francisco, USA
- Tavares Strachan, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York City, USA
- Tavares Strachan, Pierogi 2000, New York City, USA
- The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want, Albury Sayle Primary School, Nassau, The Bahamas
group shows
2022
- Forecast Form: Art in the Carribean Diaspora, 1990s – Today, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA
- A Gateway to Possible Worlds: Art and Science Fiction, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
- Citing Black Geographies, GRAY, Chicago and New York City, USA
- Flesh And Bones: The Art Of Anatomy, Getty Center, Los Angeles, USA
- Substance – SUBSTANCES (presented by Collegium), Church of San Martín, Arévalo, Ávila, Spain
- The Impermanent Display II, Maja Hoffmann / LUMA Foundation Collection, LUMA, Arles, France
2021
- The 1st Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale: Feeling the Stones, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2020
- Unmastered, Mestre Projects, Nassau, Bahamas
- We Belong Here (in conjunction with The NV STEAM Conference), Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA
- Winter Light, Hayward Gallery | Southbank Centre, London, UK
- The Willfulness of Objects, The Bass, Miami Beach, USA
- Bright Golden Haze, Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City, USA
- Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus, USF Contemporary Art Museum | University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
- INVISIBLE, Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- Countermythologies, NXTHVN, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- You Belong Here (permanent outdoor installation) | The Momentary | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA
- Sometimes Lies Are Prettier (outdoor installation with AF Projects) | Frieze Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, USA
2019
- Smoke & Mirrors, AF Projects, Los Angeles, USA
- Soft Power: A Conversation For The Future, SFMOMA | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
- How The Light Gets In, Johnson Museum of Art | Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
- Far Out: Suits, Habs, And Labs for Outer Space, SFMOMA | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
- The 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia: May You Live In Interesting Times, Venice, Italy
- The Visible Turn: Contemporary Artists Confront Political Invisibility, USF Contemporary Art Museum | University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
2018
- We Belong Here (commissioned outdoor installation) | The 1st Faena Festival: This Is Not America, Miami Beach, USA
- The Encyclopedia of Invisibility (commissioned outdoor installation) | The 57th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- Indicators: Artists on Climate Change, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, New York, USA
- Declaration, Institute for Contemporary Art | Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
2017
- Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/ Giuffrida Collection (in collaboration with Baltimore Museum of Art), Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, USA
2016
- False Narratives, Pierogi 2000, New York City, USA
- Winter 2015: Collected Works, Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada
2015
- The Transformation Business, Jane Lombard Gallery, New York City, USA
2014
- On The Blue Shore Of Silence, Tracy Williams Gallery, New York City, USA
- Bringing The World Into The World, Queens Museum, New York City, USA
2013
- Life: On the Moon, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, USA
- Arctic, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
- The 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art: More Light, Moscow, Russia
- Pataphysics: A Theoretical Exhibition, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York City, USA
2011
- Roundabout, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
2010
- Roundabout°, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
- The 3rd Fokus Łódź Biennale: From The Liberty Square To Independence Square, Łódź, Poland
2009
- Black & White Works, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York City, USA
2008
- Drawing Review: 37 Years Of Works On Paper, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York City, USA
- Pierogi Et Al, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
- InnerOuterSpace, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
2007
- New York States Of Mind, Queens Museum of Art, New York City, USA
- 20th Anniversary: In The Fullness Of Time, The Luggage Store, San Francisco, USA
- New York States Of Mind, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
- Block Party II: An Exhibition of Drawings, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
- (Un)Natural Selection, Pierogi 2000, New York City, USA
- Connecticut Contemporary, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
- From The Fat Of The Land: Alchemies, Ecologies, Attractions, Grand Arts, Kanas City, Missouri, USA
2006
- Surveillances And Observations: Subjecting To The Objective, Pierogi 2000, Leipzig, Germany
- Factitious, Pierogi 2000, New York City, USA
- School Days, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York City, USA
2005
- Untitled, Safn, Reykjavík, Iceland
2004
- Nothing Compared To This: Ambient, Incidental And New Minimal Tendencies In Current Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
2003
- One-On-One, Pierogi 2000, New York City, USA
2002
- Mine, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York City, USA
public collections
- The Bass, Miami, Florida, USA
- Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- LACMA | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA
- The Momentary | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA
- MAC de Lyon | Musée d’art contemporain, Lyon, France
- QAGOMA | The Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
- RISD Museum | Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
awards
2022
- MacArthur Fellows Program, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
2019–2020
- Artist-in-Residence Scholar, Getty Research Institute
2018
- Frontier Art Prize
- Inaugural Artist-in-Residence, Allen Institute
2014
- LACMA Art + Technology Lab Grant, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
2009–2010
- MIT Artist-in-Residence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2008
- Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant
2007
- Fellowship, Grand Arts Residency
2006
- Alice B. Kimball Fellowship, Yale School of Art, Yale University
TALKS
2022
- Panel discussion | Models Of Our Time: The Caribbean | Talking Galleries, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City, USA
- Artist talk | Full Circle: Tavares Strachan, Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2021
- Artist talk | Tavares Strachan (in conversation with Alysia Nicole Harris), Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA
- Belong / Brooklyn: A Conversation Between Tavares Strachan And Clara Wu Tsai, Barclays Center, New York City, USA
2020
- Artist talk | Tavares Strachan In Conversation With Ekow Eshun | Frieze London Talks, online
- Panel discussion | Shifting Art & Design Practices During Times Of Crisis | Design Talks for Design Pavilion (presented by Rhode Island School of Design), online
2019
- Artist talk | Invisibility, Identity: Tavares Strachan – The Berlin Wall Hoodie | The 3rd World Frontiers Forum: Human · Digital · Identity · Future, Factory Berlin, site of the Berlin Wall, Germany
- Astronaut Dr. Yvonne Cagle And Artist Tavares Strachan In Conversation | SFMOMA | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
- Artist talk | Tavares Strachan | The 57th Carnegie International lecture series (co-presented with Caregie Mellon University's School of Art) | Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- Panel discussion | Artists, Activism, Agency: A Conversation With Artists Shepard Fairey, Catherine Opie, Tavares Strachan, And Nadya Tolokonnikova (co-presented by Sotheby's Institute of Art), The Broad Stage, Los Angeles, USA
2018
- Keynote | Tavares Strachan: Art And Existence | The 2nd Frontier Art Prize Winner Talk, Harvard Business School | Harvard University, Boston, USA
2017
- Panel discussion | Does Technology Need The Arts To Build A Better Future? (presented by Future Tense – a partnership between Slate, New America, and Arizona State University), New America, Washington DC, USA
2014
- Artist Talk | In Conversation: (Im)possible Matters (moderated by Franklin Sirmans), EXPO Chicago, Navy Pier, Chicago, USA
2010
- Panel discussion | Tavares Strachan: Orthostatic Tolerance (It Might Not Be Such a Bad Idea if I Never Went Home), MIT List Visual Arts Center | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
