Derek Fordjour: Red Queen's Race / Petzel Gallery at Art Basel 2024
Derek Fordjour: Red Queen's Race / Petzel Gallery at Art Basel 2024. Basel (Switzerland), June 11, 2024. Official description: Derek Fordjour’s mechanized diorama Red Queen’s Race (2023), first debuted at his solo exhibition at the gallery last fall, will be on view, in addition to three new paintings, each depicting Black jockeys. These works continue Fordjour’s interest in the legacy of the Black jockey in horse racing and the artist’s broader examination of Black performance and success in America.
Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Ghanaian parents. He was awarded 2016 Sugarhill Museum Artist-in-Residence, the 2017 Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in New York City, and named the 2018 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellowship Award. He was appointed The Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union and served as a Core Critic at Yale University School of Art. In 2018, he was awarded commissions for the Whitney Museum of American Art Billboard Project and the Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts & Design program. Recently, he was the inaugural artist for the Building Art Series on the façade of MOCA Grand Avenue in Los Angeles. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. He has also been featured in several publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Juxtapoz, Vanity Fair and Forbes Magazine. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University, and an MFA in painting from Hunter College. His work is held in the private and public collections of The Studio Museum of Harlem, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, SFMOMA, Brooklyn Museum, Perez Museum, The Whitney Museum and LACMA. Fordjour is the founder of Contemporary Arts Memphis Summer Fellowship program.
Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Ghanaian parents. He was awarded 2016 Sugarhill Museum Artist-in-Residence, the 2017 Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in New York City, and named the 2018 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellowship Award. He was appointed The Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union and served as a Core Critic at Yale University School of Art. In 2018, he was awarded commissions for the Whitney Museum of American Art Billboard Project and the Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts & Design program. Recently, he was the inaugural artist for the Building Art Series on the façade of MOCA Grand Avenue in Los Angeles. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. He has also been featured in several publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Juxtapoz, Vanity Fair and Forbes Magazine. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University, and an MFA in painting from Hunter College. His work is held in the private and public collections of The Studio Museum of Harlem, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, SFMOMA, Brooklyn Museum, Perez Museum, The Whitney Museum and LACMA. Fordjour is the founder of Contemporary Arts Memphis Summer Fellowship program.