Umar Rashid's diptych features vivid colors and bold lines, depicting figures in dynamic action against a backdrop of colonial architecture and towering palm trees. The painting showcases a lively scene with a horse-drawn carriage and people dressed in historical attire, juxtaposed with a sign reading "No More Parties in L.A." Rashid's style blends historical narrative with contemporary commentary, utilizing a vibrant, illustrative technique. This work highlights the complexity of historical narratives, emphasizing the intersections of race, class, and power in a fictionalized parallel universe reflecting on the mid-17th to late-19th centuries. ...
Umar Rashid’s work challenges the legacies and linearities of imperial and colonial historiographies and their influence on the construction of modernity. Across portraits, maps, flags, artefacts, vignettes and drawings and other visual remnants of an imagined empire and its multiple interactions, Rashid reveals pivotal events and the ever-changing fortunes of a lively array of protagonists, both elite and quotidian, all peculiar to a highly novel parallel universe. In this polyglot and multi-racial world of the mid 17th and late 19th centuries, Rashid collapses time, geography and the real-life dichotomies of race, class, gender, religion, sexuality and power. ...
Founded in London in 2011 by Maria Varnava, Tiwani Contemporary exhibits and represents international contemporary artists. Specifically, the gallery champions artists from Africa and its diaspora. To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, in February 2022 Tiwani Contemporary launched a purpose-built 2,000sq ft space on Victoria Island, Lagos. For Maria Varnava, who grew up in Nigeria, this is considered a homecoming. Besides its regular programme of exhibitions, Tiwani Contemporary Lagos collaborates with G.A.S –Guest Artists Space–, Yinka Shonibare’s Foundation, to offer residencies for international artists from the programme who are interested in expanding their creative practice and exchanging with local artists. The gallery aims to collaborate and contribute to the arts ecosystem in Lagos through its programme of exhibitions, talks and publications. The gallery is a regular exhibitor at Art X Lagos. Meanwhile, Tiwani Contemporary runs a programme of exhibitions in London and its programme of International Art Fairs. ...
