Shikeith
Pittsburgh, PA
December 2020
Sponsored by The Heinz Endowments
Curated by Jose Díaz, Kilolo Luckett and Devan Shimoyama
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an artist whose work is an assemblage of wonder and personal truths that focus on the metamorphoses of Black men, especially within a society that denies these men their erotic and reconciliatory potential. It is the interior I want to consider—my own, as well as, other Black men through emphasizing photography, sculpture, and film making to examine the fantastic as it relates and complicates personal autobiography and self-making. This is to say, I aim to make artwork that moves beyond a focus on the bodies of black men but into the deepness of our psyches where identities are formed and black manhood can be imagined as an indeterminate and unfixed space.
BIO
Originally from Philadelphia, PA, Shikeith now lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. He received his BA from The Pennsylvania State University (2010) and his MFA in Sculpture from The Yale School of Art (2018). He maintains overlapping practices as a visual artist and filmmaker who attempts an assemblage of personal truths and wonder that focuses on the metamorphoses of Black men. He has shared his work nationally and internationally with recent exhibitions and screenings that include The Langauge Must Not Sweat, Locust Projects, Miami, FL ; Notes Towards Becoming A Spill', Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA ; Shikeith: This was his body/His body finally his, MAK Gallery, London, UK; Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; A Drop of Sun Under The Earth, MOCA LA, Los Angeles, CA; Labor Relations, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Poland; Race, Sex, & Cinema: The World of Marlon Riggs, BAM, Brooklyn, NY; and Black Intimacy: An Evening With Shikeith and Rickey Laurentiis, MoMA, New York, NY. He is the 2019 recipient of The Pittsburgh Foundation's Investing in Professional Artist Grant and recently joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Art.