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,

Hudson River Museum NY, Materials for the Arts NY, Art League Houston TX, Green

Drake Art Gallery PA, 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 res-

idencies 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 Arts Fund, the Bronx

Council on the Arts’ Artist for Community and New Work grant, and the Spanish Em-

bassy Ghana Painters Award further attest to his artistic prowess.

The artist currently resides in 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 consistently demonstrate a keen interest in addressing issues that con-

front my community and humanity. My works address the issues of ‘excess’ in both

the production and consumption of countless products, by integrating the concept of

materials reuse and upcycling I create multimedia site-specific installations, collages,

and paintings, which are viewed as group portraits that communicate the hopefulness,

aesthetic and conceptual beauty of waste from our lives that may have been ignored

or worthless to their bearers, yet valuable for my creations.

My perceptive use of commonly found objects (fabric scraps, metro cards, jewelry, card-

board, paper, photographs, stories, etc.) creates poetic representations of real-world

issues such as migration, childcare, gender, social and environmental justice, whilst en-

couraging material reuse and upcycling in reference to climate change. History plays an

essential role in my process of repurposing objects and stories to reflect the nostalgia

of place and time, utopian cultures, and traditions in juxtaposition to the complexities

of the African, African American, and minority experiences.

The interactive process I use is inspired by “Sankofa”, a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol that

means “to learn from the past for a prosperous future,” demonstrating a commitment

to community, self-love, and appreciation. I see my audience as collaborators and par-

ticipants in soliciting materials and creating story circles around my theme. As a futurist,

I deem it a responsibility to positively impact any community I find myself in for the

enhancement of this and generations yet unborn.