BIO

Ghanaian-born artist Tijay Mohammed has showcased his work on both national and international stages, gracing prestigious venues like the Katonah Museum of Art NY, the Hudson River Museum NY, Materials for the Arts NY, Art League, Houston TX, the Green Drake Art Gallery in Pennsylvania, Gallery 1202 CA, Ravel d’ Art in Côte d’Ivoire, and the National Museum of Ghana.

Tijay's impact extends beyond exhibition spaces; he has spearheaded workshops and community-oriented projects for esteemed organizations, including the Studio Museum Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Wallach Art Gallery, Lehman College, University of Ghana, and Pinto Community Centre in Trinidad and Tobago. His contributions have not gone unnoticed, garnering him various accolades and residences from renowned institutions such as The Laundromat Project, Wave Hill, Art Bridge, Materials for the Arts, Harmattan Workshop in Nigeria, Global Crit Clinic, and Asiko Artist Residency in Ghana. Grants from institutions like the Arts Fund, the Bronx Council on the Arts’ Artist for Community and New Work grant, and the Spanish Embassy Ghana Painters Award further attest to his artistic prowess.

The artist currently resides in the Bronx, NY, and maintains a studio in Ghana that serves as a sanctuary for visiting artists to interact with residents, promoting multicultural dialogue through story circles and art workshops.

As an artist, I am driven by a passion for exploring issues that impact my community and humanity, and my work focuses on the concept of 'excess' in production and consumption, offering a solution through materials reuse and up-cycling. 

Through multimedia collages, site-specific installations, mixed media paintings, and public sculptures, I reimagine waste as valuable materials, revealing the aesthetic and conceptual beauty of discarded items and challenging the notion of their worthlessness. I create poetic representations of pressing issues like migration, childcare, gender, social, and environmental justice by repurposing everyday objects, such as fabric scraps, metro cards, jewelry, paper, and photographs. Through this process, I promote recycling as a response to climate change. 

My creative process is deeply rooted in history, as I reinterpret objects and stories to evoke a sense of nostalgia for place, time, and utopian cultures, while acknowledging the complexities of African and African American experiences. 

As a futurist, I am committed to making a positive impact in any community I am a part of, for the benefit of current and future generations through an interactive approach, commitment to community, self-love, and appreciation, inspired by the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol 'Sankofa,' which means 'learning from the past to ensure a prosperous future.'

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024     Read to A Child (solo) The Carol Shen Gallery Museum, Packer Collegiate Institute NY

2023     Read to A Child, (solo) Casita Maria Gallery NY

Order / Reorder: Experiments with Collections, Hudson River Museum NY

              Olaju Art Group, San Antonia TX 

2022       Inside Art, Children's Museum of Manhattan, NY

              Alhamdu, Mipsterz Duke University, NC

2021      Pride of our village (solo show) Gallery 1202 Gilroy CA

2020      The Election 2020, The Puffin Foundation

              Phase 2: See some, say something, (Solo) Materials for the Art, NY

              We are All in this together, Bronx River Art Center

              American Muslim Futures, Muslim Advocates

              Black History, Zari Art Gallery London UK

              Art off Screen, Neumraki NY

              An-Nisaa: The Women, (Solo) Katonah Museum of Art, NY

              Hudson River Museum NY

              Contemporary Reuse 2020, Materials for the Art NY   

             Olaju Art Group, San Antonia TX
2019     Art, Artist and You, Children's Museum of Manhattan, NY

              Foreign/Familiar: Immigrants in The Bronx, Longwood Art Gallery, NY
              Ubuntu: I am because we are, Art League, Houston TX

              Ubuntu: I am because we are, Zocalo Houston TX
2017      Make___Place, New York Immigration Coalition, NY
              African spirituality, Calabar Gallery, NY
2016     The BRONX: AFRICA, Longwood Art Gallery, NY
             The Hub Art Gallery, State College PA
2015     Lincoln Community Hospital, Bronx NY
2014     Wall to wall, Arima  Trinidad and Tobago
2013     Bengerville, Abidjan Revel ‘art festival, Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire
             Green Drake Gallery, Art Across the Ocean, Millheim PA
             Dei Centre, History of contemporary art in Ghana in the last 5 weeks, Ghana

HONORS AND AWARDS

2021     City Artist Corps Grant NY
2017/19 New Work Grant, Bronx Council on the Art, NY
             Art Fund Grants Bronx Council on the Art, NY

              Artist for Community Grant, Bronx Council on the Art, NY
2014      Ministry of Community Development, Trinidad and Tobago
2011      The Artwork of the Day New York Art Expo
2005      Spanish embassy Ghana painters award
2001      Ghanatta Best Painter

RESIDENCIES
2020      Materials for the Art, NY 

              Katonah Museum of Art, NY

              Hudson River Museum NY

2019      Children's Museum of Manhattan, NY

              Wave Hill Winter Workspace, NY
2017     Create Change, The Laundromat Project, NY
            Engaging Artist fellowship, MoreArt, NY
2013     The 3rd International Art Programme, Accra Ghana
            Global Crit Clinic, Accra Ghana
            Abidjan Revel ‘art fete, Abidjan Cote d’ Ivoire
            The 3rd International Art Programme, Accra Ghana
2012     Harmattan, Agbarha- Otor Delta State Nigeria

WORKSHOPS AND LECTURES

2020     Family Art workshop, Katonah Museum of Art, NY 
2019     ArtXchange program, Brooklyn Museum, NY 

             Home Sweet Home, Longwood Art Gallery, NY
            Ubuntu art workshop, Wavehill Family Art Project
2017     Ubuntu art workshop, Laundromat Project Space, Bronx NY
             Diversity celebration, Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling
2016     Family Day art workshop, Wallach Gallery, NY
            Studio Squared: Platanos Two Ways. Studio Museum, New York
2014    Print Change Workshop, Harlem NY
            Wall-to-wall Fabric workshop, Arima  Trinidad and Tobago
2013    Global Penn State Conference, Penn State University, PA
            Revel ‘art festival, Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire
            Magnate Retreat, University of Ghana                                                          

            2nd Annual Conference of the Pan –African Competitiveness Forum, Ghana
2009    Springboard Road Show, Accra Ghana
2012    Invents, Talent recruit. University of Ghana
            YPYC Transformational Leadership Conference, Accra Ghana
2010    Convention on Art and Development, Nigeria  
2009    Springboard Road Show, Accra Ghana

TEACHING ARTIST 

2020- Present  Lehman College Art Gallery

2020- Present  Riverdale Senior Services (Center for Ageless Living) Bronx.

2016- Present  Nuspirits Inc.- Brooklyn NY/ Benin Africa

2020- 21  Hudson River Museum NY

2020- 21  Katonah Museum of Art

2017- 19  Laundromat Project

          Vincent De Paul Nursing Home Bronx

          Paul Nursing Home and ArchCare Senior Life (PACE) Center Bronx

2016- 2020  Bronx Council on the Arts

2016- 2019  Light and peace After-school program, Brooklyn

2015- 2018  Art teacher, Kamit Preparatory Institute - Brooklyn

EDUCATION

2020-24   Teach with GIVE .com, annual teaching artist training 

2024        Art Therapy Practitioner, Scholistico Canada

2019/21  Staten Island Teaching Artist Institute NY

               South California School of Interpreting

2015       Community Workers Training NY Office of Minority Health, U.S. Dept of Health and Human          

               Services 

               The Art Student League of New York

2003  Ghanatta College of Art and Design Ghana