Rashaad Newsome


Rashaad Newsome is an American artist working at the intersection of technology, collage, sculpture, video, music, and performance. He lives and works in Oakland, California and Brooklyn, New York.

Education

Rashaad Newsome holds a 2023 honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, a B.F.A. in art history from Tulane University in New Orleans, and a certificate of study in digital post production from Film/Video Arts Inc, New York. In 2005 he studied MAX/MSP programming at Harvestworks Digital Media Art Center in New York.

Career

His work has been exhibited, screened, and performed in galleries, museums, institutions, and festivals throughout the world including the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; MoMA PS1, Queens, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Garage Center of Contemporary Culture, Moscow; and MUSA, Vienna. Newsome's work is in numerous public and private collections including the Studio Museum; The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Richmond, Virginia; The Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin; National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut. In 2010 he participated in the Whitney Biennial in New York, and in 2011 Greater New York at MoMA PS1, New York.
In addition to being in art, Newsome runs a production company, Rashaad Newsome Studio.
In 2019, with a LACMA Art + Technology Lab's Grant, Newsome created the first generation of his Artificial Intelligence, Being 1.0, which functioned as a critical tour guide to his 2020 exhibition To Be Real at Fort Mason Center for Art and Culture, in San Francisco.
Since that time, Newsome has been in residence at The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.

Awards

2021Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship, Knight Foundation
2020
  • Artist Residency, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial IntelligenceRapid Response Fellowship, Eyebeam
2019Art + Technology Lab Grant, LACMAMediaMaker Fellowship, BAVC
2018
2017
2016
2014
2011
2010
  • Urban Artist Initiative Individual Artist Grant
2009
  • Rema Hort Mann Foundation Visual Arts Grant

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2022Assembly, Park Avenue Armory Drill Hall, New York, New York
2020Black Magic, Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York, New YorkTo Be Real, Fort Mason Center for Art & Culture, San Francisco
2019ICON/STOP PLAYING IN MY FACE!, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
2017Reclaiming Our Time, Debuck Gallery, New York, New YorkMélange, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
2016STOP PLAYING IN MY FACE!, DeBuck Gallery, New York, New YorkTHIS IS WHAT I WANT TO SEE, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
2015Order of Chivalry, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GeorgiaSilence Please The Show Is About To Begin, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto
2014LS.S, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New YorkFIVE, The Drawing Center, New York, New York
2013King of Arms, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans
2011Herald, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, New YorkRashaad Newsome/MATRIX 161, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
2010Honorable Ordinaries, Ramis Barquet Gallery, New York, New YorkFuturo, ar/ge Kunst Galerie Museum, Bolzano, Italy
2009Standards, Ramis Barquet Gallery, New York, New York

Group exhibitions

2022In the Black Fantastic, Hayward Gallery, London
2021The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
2020Mothership: Voyage into Afrofuturism, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CaliforniaAfter La vida nueva, Artists Space, New York, New York
2019Elements of Vogue, El Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico CityRadical Love, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, New York
2018Something to Say, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
2017Elements of Vogue, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, SpainPublic Movement, Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö, Sweden
2015A Curious Blindness, Columbia University, New York, New York
2014Killer Heels, Brooklyn Museum, New York, New YorkBlack Eye, New York, New York
2013Goddess Clap Back: Hip Hop Feminism in Art, CUE Art Foundation, New York, New York
2012It’s Time to Dance Now, Centre national d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, ParisStage Presence: Theatricality in Art and Media, SFMOMA, San FranciscoThe Bearden Project, the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
2011Beauty Contest, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, New York, United States / MUSA, Vienna, AustriaVenice Biennale: "Commercial Break", Garage Projects, Venice, Italy
2010Free, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New YorkGreater New York, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New YorkWhitney Biennial, New York, New YorkProspect 1.5, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans