Double Cube Formation No. 1, from the series Mahber Shaw’ate (Association for 7) | Dawit L. Petros
2010
17 x 22 inches (25.5 x 28.75 inches framed)
Edition of 20, 3 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of 7) takes as its starting point found cardboard boxes and an East African alphabet. Tigrinya is a language spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. Inherent to the script are seven individual permutations that transform thirty-three basic consonants into 231 symbols.
The work integrates performative, sculptural, and installation strategies through photography. Each image depicts a specific permutation documented in various studio locations and landscapes.
The work does several things. It proposes an alternate, parallel model for seriality in art. Second, it offers a metaphor for subjects who are transformed within different cultural contexts. Third, it uses simple cardboard as a material to construct elegant forms, while highlighting cardboard’s association with movements of people, objects, and ideas. The result is a hybridized cartography of language. The temporary structures merge possibilities inherent in both African and western cultural frameworks. The photographs present a third-form that borrows freely from both.
ABOUT DAWIT L. PETROS
Born 1972 in Asmara, Eritrea
Lives and works in New York and Chicago
After studying at Concordia University in Montreal and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Dawit L. Petros developed an artistic practice for which he has received wide acclaim. He has received grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Art Matters Foundation; was a Fulbright scholar; and has been artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Addis Ababa Foto Festival, and the McColl Center for Visual Art at the Knight Foundation. He has been a visiting artist at the Art Institute of Chicago and completed the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program.
Selected solo exhibitions: “The Stranger’s Notebook,” H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City (2016); The Stranger’s Notebook, Tiwani Contemporary, London (2016); “Sense of Place,” Museum of Fine Arts Boston (2013); Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of Seven), Alexander Gray Associates, New York (2011); “Mimesis,” Marilia Razuk Galeria de Arte, Sao Paulo (2011)
Selected group exhibitions: “Recent Histories, The Walther Collection Project Space, New York, and the Walther Collection, Neu Ulm, Germany (2016); “Position As Desired,” Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON (2016); “Under Another Name,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2014); “Earth Matters: The Land As Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa,” National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, and Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles (2013–14); “Becoming,” Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC (2011); “The Idea of North,” Biscuiterie, Dakar, Senegal (2011)
Selected public collections: Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam; Saskatchewan Arts Council, Regina, SK; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
2010
17 x 22 inches (25.5 x 28.75 inches framed)
Edition of 20, 3 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of 7) takes as its starting point found cardboard boxes and an East African alphabet. Tigrinya is a language spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. Inherent to the script are seven individual permutations that transform thirty-three basic consonants into 231 symbols.
The work integrates performative, sculptural, and installation strategies through photography. Each image depicts a specific permutation documented in various studio locations and landscapes.
The work does several things. It proposes an alternate, parallel model for seriality in art. Second, it offers a metaphor for subjects who are transformed within different cultural contexts. Third, it uses simple cardboard as a material to construct elegant forms, while highlighting cardboard’s association with movements of people, objects, and ideas. The result is a hybridized cartography of language. The temporary structures merge possibilities inherent in both African and western cultural frameworks. The photographs present a third-form that borrows freely from both.
ABOUT DAWIT L. PETROS
Born 1972 in Asmara, Eritrea
Lives and works in New York and Chicago
After studying at Concordia University in Montreal and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Dawit L. Petros developed an artistic practice for which he has received wide acclaim. He has received grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Art Matters Foundation; was a Fulbright scholar; and has been artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Addis Ababa Foto Festival, and the McColl Center for Visual Art at the Knight Foundation. He has been a visiting artist at the Art Institute of Chicago and completed the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program.
Selected solo exhibitions: “The Stranger’s Notebook,” H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City (2016); The Stranger’s Notebook, Tiwani Contemporary, London (2016); “Sense of Place,” Museum of Fine Arts Boston (2013); Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of Seven), Alexander Gray Associates, New York (2011); “Mimesis,” Marilia Razuk Galeria de Arte, Sao Paulo (2011)
Selected group exhibitions: “Recent Histories, The Walther Collection Project Space, New York, and the Walther Collection, Neu Ulm, Germany (2016); “Position As Desired,” Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON (2016); “Under Another Name,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2014); “Earth Matters: The Land As Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa,” National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, and Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles (2013–14); “Becoming,” Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC (2011); “The Idea of North,” Biscuiterie, Dakar, Senegal (2011)
Selected public collections: Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam; Saskatchewan Arts Council, Regina, SK; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
2010
17 x 22 inches (25.5 x 28.75 inches framed)
Edition of 20, 3 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of 7) takes as its starting point found cardboard boxes and an East African alphabet. Tigrinya is a language spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. Inherent to the script are seven individual permutations that transform thirty-three basic consonants into 231 symbols.
The work integrates performative, sculptural, and installation strategies through photography. Each image depicts a specific permutation documented in various studio locations and landscapes.
The work does several things. It proposes an alternate, parallel model for seriality in art. Second, it offers a metaphor for subjects who are transformed within different cultural contexts. Third, it uses simple cardboard as a material to construct elegant forms, while highlighting cardboard’s association with movements of people, objects, and ideas. The result is a hybridized cartography of language. The temporary structures merge possibilities inherent in both African and western cultural frameworks. The photographs present a third-form that borrows freely from both.
ABOUT DAWIT L. PETROS
Born 1972 in Asmara, Eritrea
Lives and works in New York and Chicago
After studying at Concordia University in Montreal and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Dawit L. Petros developed an artistic practice for which he has received wide acclaim. He has received grants and awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Art Matters Foundation; was a Fulbright scholar; and has been artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Addis Ababa Foto Festival, and the McColl Center for Visual Art at the Knight Foundation. He has been a visiting artist at the Art Institute of Chicago and completed the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program.
Selected solo exhibitions: “The Stranger’s Notebook,” H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City (2016); The Stranger’s Notebook, Tiwani Contemporary, London (2016); “Sense of Place,” Museum of Fine Arts Boston (2013); Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of Seven), Alexander Gray Associates, New York (2011); “Mimesis,” Marilia Razuk Galeria de Arte, Sao Paulo (2011)
Selected group exhibitions: “Recent Histories, The Walther Collection Project Space, New York, and the Walther Collection, Neu Ulm, Germany (2016); “Position As Desired,” Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON (2016); “Under Another Name,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2014); “Earth Matters: The Land As Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa,” National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, and Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles (2013–14); “Becoming,” Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC (2011); “The Idea of North,” Biscuiterie, Dakar, Senegal (2011)
Selected public collections: Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam; Saskatchewan Arts Council, Regina, SK; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto