Nari Ward: We the People
MCA Denver and internationally recognized artist Nari Ward partnered with OBM on an ambitious public art project to extend a retrospective exhibition of Ward’s work entitled We the People beyond museum walls. The artist’s famous wall-drawings, which he creates by drilling shoelaces into architectural walls to form images and texts, appeared as digital content on 38 large-scale displays and kiosks throughout Downtown Denver. As a companion project to the retrospective, Ward debuted a major new work entitled LAZARUS Beacon (2020) – a powerful site-specific digital content that champions equal access to art and urges closer inspection of American history. The dynamic multi-story video projection was unveiled on the Daniels and Fisher Clocktower, a highly visible 325’ tall structure located in the heart of the City. The projection was on display several nights per week from July through September 2020.
Featured Artists
Nari Ward
Nari Ward (b. 1963, Saint Andrew, Jamaica; lives and works in New York) received a BA from City University of New York, Hunter College in 1989, and an MFA from City University of New York, Brooklyn College in 1992. His work has been the subject of two major retrospectives: Sun Splashed, which originated at Pérez Art Museum Miami and travelled to the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, and the ICA Boston; and We the People, which was organized by the New Museum in New York and traveled to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver. He has had additional solo exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park, New York; Savannah College of Art and Design Museum, Georgia; Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Baton Rouge; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Ward has participated in group exhibitions around the world. Ward’s work is in museum collections through the United States, as well as Italy, Turkey, and Australia, and he has received numerous honors and distinctions including the Fellowship Award, The United States Artists, Chicago; Vilcek Prize in Fine Arts, Vil cek Foundation, New York; Joyce Award, The Joyce Foundation, Chicago; Rome Prize, American Academy of Rome, as well as awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pollock – Krasner Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Initiatives involved in:
Nari Ward: We the People