Tariku Shiferaw at Cathouse Proper / Brooklyn

​Tariku
Shiferaw 
This Ain’t Safe
March 24 –May 6,
2018
Cathouse Proper @
524 Projects
524
Court Street, 2nd fl.

Brooklyn, NY
11231

photos by Dario Lasagni
Tariku Shiferaw’s
work ranges from the body to Hip-Hop to Minimalism. He describes some of his
paintings as “torso-sized.” Generally, the paintings reflect his
coloration, that is to say, black and blue, patterned in horizontal
stripes––marks that both assert a presence and redact a surface. Unlike Agnes
Martin or Daniel Buren, Shiferaw’s stripes are, at least in part, referential,
having been first derived from the slats on shipping pallets, a potent image
when one considers that the artist is an African immigrant. He describes his
upbringing in LA as divided between two parallel identities: at home, his
mother’s little Ethiopian boy; in society, an African-American where he is
“black”.
We say this
because color is an important element in Shiferaw’s work; black is certainly
not a void, nor emptiness, but a designation, a label, and it seems most so
when framed by gleaming white gallery walls. At Cathouse Proper, in this
regard, expect to see his works installed with intention.
Like his
upbringing, his approach to making is also divided. The paintings––mostly
acrylic paint on stretched plastic––aesthetically fall into the genre of
Minimal-Expressionism; however, they are always titled after songs from
Hip-Hop, R&B, Blues, Jazz, or Reggae. Shiferaw ascribes equal value to the
title as to the physical piece. One begins to wonder, therefore, if the
paintings are made as much for their inherent beauty as to smuggle into the
white gallery, like contraband, the referenced songs’ lyrics, culture and
people?

/

Tariku
Shiferaw (b. 1983, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) explores mark-making in order to
address the physical and metaphysical spaces of painting and societal
structures. Shiferaw was raised in Los Angeles where he earned his BFA from the
University of Southern California in 2007. In 2015, he received his MFA
from Parsons School of Design. Recent exhibitions include the 2017 Whitney
Biennial as part of Occupy Museum’s Debtfair; a group exhibition titled A
Poet*hical Wager at Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland; and a solo show,
Erase Me, at Addis Fine Art, London project space. Shiferaw currently lives and
works in New York.