Azikiwe Mohammed
Site: Blank Space
At Blank Space, Azikiwe Mohammed mounts a new institution, Armor Photo Studio, for his ongoing fictional city, New Davonhaime (an amalgamation of the 5 most densely populated Black-majority towns). Mohammed will operate Armor Photo Studio as a functional photo studio set within a full-scale installation of sculpture, found objects, and paintings from previous iterations of the project. Mohammed will be in residence at The Luminary for a month, operating the Armor Photo Studio during the day to provide free portraits for neighborhood residents and available to attend neighborhood parties, BBQ’s, family reunions, and other gatherings on evenings and weekends.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Azikiwe Mohammed graduated from Bard College in 2005 where he studied photography and fine arts. Since then he has shown these things in galleries both nationally and internationally. In 2015 he received the Art Matters Grant, and in 2016 was the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant. He is part of the collections at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the MoMA. He lives in New York and has his studio at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City.
Mohammed’s work often engages New Davonhaime — a conceptual town conceived by Mohammed that is an amalgamation of the names of the five most densely populated Black cities in America: New Orleans, Detroit, Jackson, Birmingham and Savannah. Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime was created to serve as a safe community, one of reimagined space and belonging, for Black and Brown people living in America. Previous versions of Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime have shown at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, No Longer Empty, Knockdown Center, MoMa PS1, and Mana Contemporary Miami.
