Anna Zorina Gallery is pleased to announce Forever Is Twice As Long From The Ground, the Gallery’s second solo exhibition with Azikiwe Mohammed. Mohammed's practice centers on creating an alternative space for people of color. His paintings, objects, videos and installations act as celebrations of Black continuance. He shares rich and vibrant offerings of comfort food and othered moments of leisure that touch on a nerve that is joyful, nostalgic and intimate.
How far away is a future that has already come, that we are currently living inside of. Has it always been the future or is it now a horizon that we look back upon and act inside of. The promise of the flying car to take us to places lacking that which concerns us here was a lie, a distraction from the ground that we have neglected. There were never any Black people in The Jetsons. We have been forced to till this American ground with no break until a break was forced and when that time came everything got set on fire. We now know what a break looks like and I doubt we will ever be allowed one again. We are living in the after break time. What are the options for us now that the question has been answered. The future has never existed, The Duke died with Isaac Hayes and as the cities collapse under the weight of a failed system of false structures we look to the ground tilled and trade iron for grass. The shadows cast from street lamps are a predictable mirror while the same cast from trees breathe with the wind. A train set thru the woods leaves the same trail of smoke as a wildfire. What is our present if not someone else's future that didn't happen. What is the future if not a past we leave for others. We are living past the times of steel and as we exist in this new space, looking upward and out, may we remember that Forever is twice as long when you're looking up from the ground.
AZIKIWE MOHAMMED (b. 1983, New York, NY) graduated from Bard College in 2005 with a BFA in photography and fine arts. Mohammed received the Art Matters Grant in 2015; the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant in 2016 and the Rauschenberg Artists Fund Grant in 2021. He is an alumnus of Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, New York; Wassaic Project in Wassaic, New York and Mana Contemporary Residency in Jersey City, New Jersey. His work has been featured in notable publications including New York Times, VICE, I-D, Artforum, Forbes, BOMB and Hyperallergic. Mohammed has presented a number of solo exhibitions in venues including the Yeh Art Gallery at St. John University; Elijah Wheat Showroom, Newburgh, New York; 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 Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas; 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.
For further information, please contact Marie Nyquist at 212-243-2100,
or via email at marie@annazorinagallery.com.