NARI WARD

Mango Tourists

source: massmoca

Nari Ward’s dramatic sculptural installations are composed of material systematically collected from the neighborhoods where he lives and works or is personally connected to. By revealing the complex emotional registers inherent within everyday found objects, Ward’s work examines issues of race, poverty, and consumer culture and the inherent meaning and gravity we place upon objects from the discarded to the treasured.

At MASS MoCA, Ward will create a new installation encompassing the entire second floor of Building 4, which visitors can experience as both a large-scale environment and as a series of smaller yet connected spaces. The title, Sub Mirage Lignum, represents the three main themes of the exhibition: sub, in the dual sense of “underneath” and “substitute for another (space)”; mirage, a false image produced by the refraction of light, subject to human interpretation; and lignum, derived from Lignum Vitae (“wood of life”), a tree whose bloom is the national flower of Jamaica.

Ward’s installation will function as a hybrid zone where the real and the imaginary are intermingled – a place where one cannot quite disentangle the mirage from reality. The centerpiece is a monumental work entitled Nu Colossus. Ward spent his childhood in Jamaica but has lived in the United States since he was a teenager; therefore Jamaica, as a place, exists for him as a blend between reality and an imagined zone. Ward became particularly interested in Jamaican fishing villages as temporary spaces suggestive of both community and sustenance. Like in Ward’s work, these villages are made up of what the fishermen can find — old oil barrels dotting the shore and brightly painted, recycled plywood shacks. For Ward these villages go beyond the boundaries of the “Jamaican experience” and connect to the creative act itself, in both the utilization of reuse and in the wide net cast by both fishermen and artists, even though the outcome is unsure.

The form of Nu Colossus comes from a small conical basket-woven fish trap. Fish are lured into these traps only to get ensnared. This duality of seduction and entrapment is key to Ward’s idea of mirage, which as an image both distorts reality and points to a sense of need. Ward’s 60-foot long sculpture will be encased in wooden strips, covered with circular elements salvaged from MASS MoCA’s factory past. Suspended inside the cone, broken bits of weathered furniture appear to be both stuck in the trap while also intrinsically a part of its structure. Nearby, a 30-foot long wooden boat held up by large sheets of glass references glass-bottomed tourist boats, but also creates a mirage of the boat floating in the middle of the space. This liminal zone in the gallery is neither of the water nor the shore.

Adjacent galleries will hold connected works like Stall, a sound and sculptural piece. Though a poor country, Jamaica is home to a booming tourist trade, which drives a robust market for souvenirs that are linked to national cultural traditions.
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source: gardnermuseum

Nari Ward’s (b. 1963 Jamaica) installations evoke emotional responses from viewers by challenging their social and spiritual beliefs. His dramatic sculptures are composed of systematically collected material from his urban neighborhood and often incorporate sound and light. Weaving culture, history, and personal narrative, Ward transforms plastic garbage bags, abandoned baby strollers, glass bottles, landscaping barrier cloth, fire hoses, oil drums, doors, and old television into works that explore issues surrounding race, poverty, consumer culture, sex and immigration.

Nari Ward has exhibited at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; The New Museum, New York: the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit; the Palazzo delle Papesse-Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy; the Galleria Civica díArte, Torino, Italy; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan; and the Taipei Museum, Taipei. In addition, his work has been included in Prospect 1 New Orleans Biennial (2008); Whitney Biennial, New York (2006); Echigo- Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan (2006); Sharjah International Biennial 7,Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2005); and Documenta XI, Kassel (2003). He received commissions from the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. Ward is currently a professor of art and sculpture at Hunter College. He received a BA from Hunter College in 1991 and an MFA from Brooklyn College 1992. Nari Ward was born in St. Andrews, Jamaica and he currently lives and works in Harlem, New York.
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source: fabricworkshopandmuseum

Born in 1963, St. Andrews, Jamaica
Nari Ward received his BA from Hunter College, New York in 1991—where he currently teaches—and his MFA from Brooklyn College, New York in 1992. Ward has an extensive exhibition history having participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world. Recent solo exhibitions include “Episodes” at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2002); “Rites of Way” at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2002); “The Refinery X: A small twist of fate” at the Palazzo delle Papesse-Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy (2006); “Nari Ward: 2005-2010” at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas (2010); and “LIVESupport” at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York (2010). Recent group exhibitions include Documenta XI, Kassel (2003); the Whitney Biennial, New York (2006); Prospect 1: New Orleans Biennial (2008); “Contemplating the Void: Interventions” in the Guggenheim Museum at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); “30 Seconds off an Inch” at the Studio Museum Harlem, New York (2010); “Transparancey, Art for Renewable Energy” at MACRO, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2010). In April 2011, Nari Ward opened “Nari Ward: Sub Mirage Lignum” at MASS MoCA, and in November 2011 a new exhibition will open in Galleria Continua/ Beijing, China.

Ward has received commissions from the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. Nari Ward is represented by Lehmann Maupin Gallery, and Galleria Continua, San Gimignano/ Beijing/ Le Moulin. He lives and works in New York.
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source: seine-et-marnefr

Nari Ward, à partir d’objets abandonnés, de matériels recyclés, crée des œuvres d’une forte
charge symbolique, définissant ainsi lui-même sa production : « mon travail est un mélange
d’optimisme provocant, d’ambitions futiles et de solutions inventées en utilisant des réfé-
rences interculturelles, des codes de réglementation, des souvenirs personnels et le hasard. »

Nari Ward (1963-) Nasceu em St Andrews, Jamaica. Graduou-se na Hunter College e obteve o título de mestre na Brooklin College. Vive e trabalha em Nova York. Trabalha com objetos, esculturas e instalações com objetos encontrados nos arredores de sua residência. Discute raça, gênero, pobreza, e cultura de consumo. Recebeu prêmios diversos entre eles: American Academy of Arts and Letters, Pollock Krasner Foudation, National Endowment for the Art, John Simon Guggenheim Foudation e Residência artística no Studio Museum of Harlen. Participou da Bienal de Veneza, da Documenta de Kassel e da Whitney Biennial.