Tariku Shiferaw was raised in Los Angeles, CA, and presently lives and works in New York City. Through his current body of work titled, “One of These Black Boys,” Shiferaw explores mark-making in order to address the physical and metaphysical spaces of painting and societal structures. He was one of the 2018-2019 participants in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program and The Drawing Center Open Sessions Residency program in 2018-2020. He exhibited his fourth solo exhibition in 2018 titled This Ain’t Safe at Cathouse Proper in Brooklyn. He is currently the recipient of the LES Studio Program (2019-20).
Tariku Shiferaw winds me up five flights of The Clemente to his LES Studio Program space. He expresses that he’s had a “true New York day,” as he was transient throughout the city in multiple meetings. His studio is also in a transient space of creation. He is negotiating the conceptual framework for an upcoming series, Mata Samay. Paintings are arranged neatly on the wall, ready to translate Shiferaw’s conceptual framework. A large wrapped painting awaits its next exhibition, leaving an energy of promise. After his studio is documented, Shiferaw invites me to tag along to Canal Plastics. Along the way he runs into a curator whose delightfully pleased to see Shiferaw. The curator glances down at Shiferaw’s bag and the gleam in his eye is ripe with anticipation of Shiferaw’s new work.
