Anna Zorina Gallery is pleased to announce 396 Wortman Ave, the Gallery’s first solo exhibition with Azikiwe Mohammed, curated by Ché Morales. Mohammed’s latest body of work explores themes of Blackness as seen through the images seen hanging on the walls, laying on coffee tables and printed on hand towels of Black homes spread across America.
In the late ‘90s to early 2000s, Mohammed spent considerable time out in Brooklyn’s New Lots area. The singularity of the sights seen there mirrored the tales he heard at home, in the homes of his cousins, aunties and uncles, and these Black visions of perseverance, prosperity and preemptive resistance created a feedback loop of images, many of which are on display here.
Mohammed illustrates these scenes for the knowing and uninitiated alike with a familiarity that can only come from a place of experiential knowledge. The artist intends to offer them back to the Black ethers from which they came. By working with Morales to recreate these liminal spaces, Mohammed seeks to offer an open look into a shared idea- one of a Blackness that exists outside of time constraints or location-based concerns, representing a truly shared vision that pulls from a collective consciousness. The constant extance of this idealogical flex space is one of the main tenets of a Blackness as old as time, regardless from whence it grows.
Mohammed hopes that by offering these “views from inside to our collective outside" may he give thanks to those that have allowed him the vision that has generated the sights in this show.
“May 396 Wortman Ave. tell a tale of the lives once lived and for those who have yet to, as the work is never done. There is always more to see.”
AZIKIWE MOHAMMED (b. 1983, New York, NY) Azikiwe Mohammed’s artwork has been shown in galleries both nationally and internationally. A 2005 graduate of Bard College, where he studied photography and fine arts, Mohammed received the Art Matters Grant in 2015 and the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in 2016. He is an alumnus of Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, New York, and Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. His work has been featured extensively in magazines, including VICE, I-D, Artforum, Forbes, BOMB and Hyperallergic. Mohammed has presented a number of solo exhibitions in venues including the Knockdown Center, Maspeth, New York; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia; Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, Florida; Ace Hotel Chicago, Illinois; IDIO Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; Long Gallery, Harlem, New York; as well as multiple solo offerings at Spring Break Art Show, New York. He has participated in group exhibitions at MoMa PS1, Queens, New York; Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana; Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, California and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, among others. He lives in New York and currently has his studio at Mana Contemporary.
CHÉ MORALES (b. 1980, Long Beach, CA) Ché Morales is a Brooklyn-based curator, experiential designer, and self-proclaimed art junkie with an insatiable appetite for unique, mind-blowing aesthetics. Morales' curatorial approach is to present groundbreaking material in new and thought-provoking ways. He believes art should be a seismic experience to remember. Ranging from large- scale murals and art installations to branded cultural events, Morales’ curatorial work has been covered by Juxtapoz, The Creators Project, Artnet, The Huffington Post, W Magazine, and Whitewall Magazine. In 2017, he housed his practice by founding ABSTRKT, a creative studio with a focus on art, design, and experiences. Clients include Nike, New Balance, Adidas, The Standard Hotel, New York City Ballet, Stock X, and more.
For further information, please contact Marie Nyquist at 212-243-2100,
or via email at marie@annazorinagallery.com.