Onajide Shabaka
Born 1948, Cincinnati, OH, United States
Onajide Shabaka builds origin stories with art works that are at once delicate and immense.
Onajide Shabaka
Introduction
Biography
CV
Introduction
Onajide Shabaka has said of his practice: “…my work, in its engagement with nature, history, technology and ritual – allows the viewers to experience a more holistic view of the world.”* This show is a remix, one that evokes the artist’s range of expression and the web of connections he makes between stories, ethnobotany, deep mapping, and anthropology, among many other themes. With his practice and work, the artist imbues into his practice a model of how one can hold accumulated memories of horrific truths in history and place while in the midst of a land’s beauty and persistence.
Shabaka’s solo exhibition On the edge of tomorrows… includes a cross section of media, from photography, mixed media collage on paper, to an artist book, watercolors and prints. A trio of Shabaka’s totemic sculptures stand in front of a new mural, inspired by his collage, You cannot know in advance what will happen (2021).
His video Silenced Histories (2019-21) plays concurrently during this exhibition as part of Emerson Dorsch Online (EDO), a video channel on the gallery’s website. Filmed while on a walk in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Corridor near the former lands of Major Pierce Butler’s plantation, the video documents how the histories in that place seem to be invisible, but, with the knowledge given forth by the credits, its dark pasts are more palpable, if ghostly.
The crisscrossing juxtapositions within the exhibition echoes the connections Shabaka draws out, like constellations, between formal patterns in plants, and their uses in various cultures and migrations between them. He places planetary movements, in proximity to spirits sensed in the muck, to the religious practices of the African diaspora. And he accompanies these with collected stories of consciousness, grief, determination, resilience, and adaptation.
Biography
Onajide Shabaka (Born Cincinnati, OH 1948. Live and works Miami, FL) studied at California College of the Arts and Art Center College of Design and earned his MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Shabaka has participated in numerous international art residencies, some established and others self-made. A selection includes Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI) in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (the artist was the first and only resident at the time); Oolite Arts’ Home and Away program with Anderson Ranch in Aspen, CO; Project Row Houses in Houston, TX and Artist in Residence in the Everglades (AIRIE). These residencies, including the self-made ones, often coincide with an intentional walk, a meditative part of Shabaka’s practice that he frames as performance. Some of these include walks in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Corridor along the coast between Georgia South Carolina, and Florida; Mangrove Walk in Greynolds Park, North Miami Beach, FL; the BWCA, Superior National Forest, Minnesota; and African Rice & Maroon Subsistence Farming Residency, Paramaribo, Suriname.
Shabaka has shown his work in solo exhibitions in South Florida, Houston, TX and Potsdam, Germany, among others. His work has been included in numerous group shows over the years. Of these recent showings include exhibitions at Project Row Houses in Houston, TX; PRIZM Art Fair in Miami; Museum of Contemporary Art of North Miami; Little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami, FL; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Bridge Red and Under the Bridge, North Miami, FL; the Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL; The NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL; The Franklin, Chicago, IL; Edna Manley College of the Arts in Kingston, Jamaica; Cindy Rucker Gallery, New York, NY; Saltworks, Atlanta, GA; Wayne State University in Detroit, MI; and Emerson Dorsch Gallery, to name a few. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including, recently, Locust Projects, The Ellies, Oolite Arts, a Wavemaker Grant, an Art In Public Places sculpture commission for the Carrie Meek Foundation in Opa Locka, FL and MOCA North Miami’s plaza. His work is widely represented in Florida institutional collections as well as in a strong base of notable private collections. Shabaka is represented by Emerson Dorsch Gallery.
Shabaka began his artistic career while still in high school in the 1960s and moved to San Francisco, CA because he was drawn to the reputation of the region’s photography scene, typified in the work of Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams, and Minor White. The racist discrimination he faced in the art world there, in the 1970s, led him to change course, pursuing fashion design. He worked with natural fabrics imported from India, Ghana, Senegal, Togo and Mali, and made designs inspired by both Asian and African garment styles. His work had a political dimension; he spoke about how much it meant to him to wear African clothes at that time. He was also a cyclist, racing bicycles in international competitions in the United States, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Italy, and Florida. It was in Italy that he resolved to make art again. He arrived in South Florida for a job associated with cycling. Around the same time, he visited family in Fort Pierce and liked it there. Its quiet was a contrast to city life, and his family had an interesting history there. His great grandfather, Patrick Wells, had been enslaved in the Carolinas before arriving in Florida a free man. The discrimination and racism he faced in Florida is not known. Eventually, his family would come to own an orange grove, and the family papers became a focal point in Shabaka’s work, as he wove a picture, with his practice, of his perspective on history(ies).
The early parts of his career in Florida include mentorship from the director at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, FL. Bonnie Clearwater has been a consistent supporter since 1994. He enjoyed a friendship with Ed Love (1936-1999), a renowned African American professor of sculpture at Florida State University who had also taught at Howard University. He showed frequently in the Miami Dade Public Library System during Barbara Young’s tenure. He took part in several important group shows, one of African American artists in Florida, curated by Amy Cappellazzo at Miami Dade College. He was one of 21 artists in Next Generation: Southern Black Aesthetic, which was organized by Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and traveled to four institutions. The exhibition catalog includes essays by Lowery Stokes Sims and Adrian Piper. His photographs of graves in Black cemeteries were included in the traveling exhibition, curated by Robert Farris Thompson (1932-2021), titled Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas, which was shown at the Museum for African Art in New York, NY, and Art Museum at FIU (currently known as FIU Frost)among other institutions. One photograph is pictured in the excellent exhibition catalog, a treasure for its overview of African spiritual practices and their influence on African American art and culture.
Recent shows and opportunities have highlighted his work in artist books, photography and printmaking, resulting in collaborations with IS Projects and Nocturnal Press in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and Extra Virgin Press, Miami, FL. He has worked and traveled with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Incubator a number of times in the last decade. We at Emerson Dorsch Gallery believe that these collaborations are marks of a strong and vibrant practice.
Onajide Shabaka has given much of himself and his art to the artistic community in South Florida over the years, including service in organizing resources for artist-entrepreneurs, teaching, supporting organizations he believes in, and public programs. This is work that many artists do, but when it has been given over decades, the significance is inestimable. We honor Shabaka for his gifts, presence, friendship and art.
CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 The future and the past are one, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, FL
2022 Oolite Arts Presents Place as Pilgrimage: Onajide Shabaka, Windows at Walgreens,
Miami Beach, FL
On the edge of tomorrows…, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL
2020 Alosúgbe: a journey across time, Studios of Key West, Miami, FL
2019 Alosúgbe: a journey across time, Emerson Dorsch, Miami, FL
Florida Lacunae, The Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL
2018 Constellations: Deep Mapping Miami’s Past, Present, and Future,
a guided walk led by Fereshteh Toosi and Onajide Shabaka, Creative Time Summit Miami, FL
2016 Antillean Lacunae: a litany of the botanical, Little Haiti Cultural Center,
Miami, FL
2015 Nierika, Pasajes y Entradas, Under the Bridge, N. Miami, FL
Demarcations, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
2014 Walking Mushrooms and Lakes, BWCA, Minnesota (Action)
Onajide Shabaka, The Guild, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Live it Up, Bakehouse Art Complex & Guinness, Miami, FL
2012 Zeichnangen und Wandabjekte, Galerie Schuster, Potsdam, Germany
Onajide Shabaka, Galerie Schuster Miami, Miami, FL
Mangrove Mud Womp, Second Avenue Studio, Florida Atlantic University,
Fort Lauderdale, FL
2007 Mangrove Walk, Artscapes, Greynolds Park, Miami-Dade Parks & Rec. Dept.,
North Miami Beach, FL
Lake Superior Walk, North Shore, Grand Marais, MN
Dry Lake – Low Lake Trail Walk, BWCAW, Superior Nat’l Forest, MN
2006 Lake Burntside Walk, Ely, MN
Strong, Spirit, Medicine, EdgeZones Art Space, Miami, FL
Logging Trail Walk, BWCAW, Superior Nat’l Forest, MN
2004 Bass Lake Trail Walk, BWCAW, Superior Nat’l Forest, MN
2003 Journey, Miamiartexchange.com
2002 Recent Works: photographic & drawing, Miami-Dade Cultural Resource Gallery,
Miami, FL
2000 I Anoint My Flesh: MFA Thesis, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT
Vulture Project & Performance, St. Lucie Locks, St. Lucie River, FL
Feature Artist, South Florida Arts and Culture, http://www.digitalcity.com
1999 Vulture Project & Performance, Myakka River State Park, Sarasota, FL
Seraphic Light, Vermont College of Norwich University, Montpelier, VT
1998 Mangrove-Mud-Mystery, Matheson Hammock Park, Coral Gables, FL
1997 Cotton & Iron: Another View, Century21 Galleries, North Miami, FL
1996 Cotton & Iron, Interamerican Gallery, Miami-Dade Community College,
Miami, FL
1995 Condition of Unfocus, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR
1994 Water is Both the Barrier and the Passageway, Center for the Arts, Stuart, FL
1972 Images of Life, Death, and the Unknown, The New Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1970 Solo Exhibition, The Studio, San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Draw: Point to Point, Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
Post Hip-Hop? or return of the Boom Bap! Curated by William Cordova, Sikkema
Jenkins & CO, New York, NY
Living in Oblivion and Artistic Examination of Our Times, Curated by Meaghan Kent,
Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL
2022 Photographing the Fantastic, Curated by Bonnie Clearwater, NSU Art Museum Ft.
Lauderdale, FL
Blue Print, Curated by Robert Chambers, Bridge Red Studio, Noth Miami, FL
Fossilized and Realized: Tar Pits Video Festival, La Brea Tar Pits & Museum, Los
Angeles, CA
Still Life, The Franklin, Chicago, IL
stand up next 2 a mountain: portals y paisajes, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL
Ground: Zero, Edge Zones, Miami, FL
2021 A landscape longed for: the garden as disturbance, Locust Projects, Miami, FL
Photographing the Fantastic, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Why Shouldn’t we Talk…, University Galleries, FAU, Boca Raton, FL
Into the Fold, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL
On Samara’s Wing, The Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery, Pembroke Pines, FL
Still Life, The Franklin Outdoors, Chicago, IL
Artful Books, Museum of Arts and Science, Daytona Beach, FL
2020 Imagine: An Anthology of Black Thoughts, Spinello Projects, Miami, FL
Why Shouldn’t We Talk About These Things at the Table?: A Community Based
Conservation with South Florida Artists A.I.M. Biennial, Miami, FL
2019 Notices in a Mutable Terrain, Fundacion Pablo Atchugarry, Miami, FL
Concrete Jungle: Narrative of Presence, Bridge Red Studios, N. Miami, FL
Reconstructing Identity, Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora,
Miami, FL
The Other Half of the Sky, Girls’ Club Collection, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Round 49: penumbras: sacred geometries Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
Spheres of Meaning: An Exhibition of Artists’ Books,
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
2018 transceivers: channels, outlets and forces PRIZM ART FAIR 2018
paradise lost?: alchemy of the everyday, Cindy Rucker Gallery, NY, NY
Because the Dawn Breaks, Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI
Monarchs: Brown & Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
the past is more infinite than the future, Under the Bridge Art Space,
North Miami, FL
Voyaging Towards the Future, Edna Manley College of the Arts, Kingston, Jamaica
Rocking Chair Sessions, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL
2017 Nature on the Edge of Urban, in association with Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
Sunrise, Sunset, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL
Prizm Art Fair, Miami, FL
NATURE/NURTURE, Salisbury University Galleries, Salisbury, MD
2016 indivisible: spirits in the material world, Prizm Art Fair
transphysics : istwa, landscapes, paisajes, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, FL
Florida Dreaming, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
65th Annual All Florida Exhibition, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
SWEAT Broadsheet Collaboration, The Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
move somethin: metaphysics of time and space, Under the Bridge, N. Miami, FL
Intersections, Deering Estate, Miami, FL
2015 Nocturnes V: The Second Life of Trees, Projects FATVillage, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
inscribing: meditations on time and space, Red Bridge Studios, N. Miami, FL
Downtown Miami: The Ground Beneath Our Feet, MDC Museum of Art + Design
Abracadabra, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL
The Moment. The Backdrop. The Persona, Collection of Francie Bishop Good and David Hortivz, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
2014 the past is more infinite than the future, Miami-Dade College Galleries, N. Campus
Gallery, Miami, FL
Third Space: Inventing the Possible, Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL
MIA / ATL, Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta, GA
MIA / BER, Galerie Verein Berliner Kunstler, Berlin, Germany
TEN : A Curated Artist Salon, Cindy Rucker Gallery, New York, NY
RADIO MIAMI: a collaborative project with Rosell Meseguer,
ArtCenter South Florida, Miami Beach, FL
Aesthetics & Values Art Exhibition, The FIU Frost Art Museum, FIU, Miami, FL
2013 A Close Read, small works, Turn Based Press studios, Miami, FL
Abracadabra, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL
Auction Benefiting Arts for Learning/Miami, Bridge Red Studios/Project Space
Hyperstition, FAT Village Projects North, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Back of Beyond, Deering Estate, Cutler, FL
DIRT Yuta Suelo Udongo Tè, Artlab33 Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Pivot Points: 15th Anniversary, Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL
2012 Trading Places, Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL
smoke signals: istwa, paisajes and allegories, Art Center South Florida,
Miami Beach, FL
smoke signals: portals and perspectives, Under the Bridge, N. Miami, FL
2011 Self Lit, 18 Rabbit Gallery at the Projects, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Miami Wave, Art Naples Fair special exhibition
Unpunished, Sue Scott Gallery, NYC
2010 Sweat Portfolio, Phase 1, Artlab33 Art Space, Miami, FL
Hidden in the Mangrove Forest, in collaboration with ArtoConecto,
Artlab33 Art Space, Miami, FL
Three-by-Six, Artlab33 Art Space, Miami, FL
DCG Open, David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
Common Ground, Artlab33 Art Space, Miami, FL
2008 Adjunct Faculty Group Show, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
Evoking Spirit, Embracing Memory, The Village of Arts and Humanities,
Philadelphia, PA (public art commission)
2006 Adjunct Faculty Group Show, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
2005 A Pulp Fictitious, art reception & silent auction, private event for Art Basel Miami
Beach, Miami Beach, FL
2004 One True Thing: Meditations on Black Aesthetics, Kerry James Marshall, (including works by Onajide Shabaka), Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Nepotism: The Art of Friendship, Museum of Art Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Index Miami, Edge Zones, Miami, FL
2003 Drawing Conclusions, Buena Vista Bldg, Miami Design District, Miami, FL
The Diaspora Speaks: African American Artists from the Permanent Collection, South
Dade Regional Library, Miami-Dade County
FAU Faculty Exhibition, Ritter Art Gallery, Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton, FL
2002 Contemporary Black Artists, Broward CC Fine Arts Gallery, Davie, FL
Mirror, Mirror, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
2001 Nguzo Saba, African Heritage Cultural Center, Miami, FL
Hurricane Show, New Gallery, Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
Summer Tossed Salad, Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami, FL
Vulture Vida, Miami Courthouse, Miami, FL
Adjunct Faculty Exhibition, Broward Community College, Davie, FL
Photography Works from the Permanent Collection, Vero Beach Art Museum, FL
1999 All God’s Children Got Shoes, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL
1998 Assembly Line, Dorsch Gallery, Miami, FL
African-American Art in South Florida, Gallery North, MDC, Miami, FL
1997 3 Person Group Show, Galerie Douyon, Miami, FL
Florida Provenance: Mixed Media Works from the Permanent Collection,
Vero Beach Museum, FL
1996 Crossings, Gallery Antigua, Miami, FL
Ethereal Images: Photographic Installations, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona
Beach Community College, Daytona, FL
Onajide Shabaka – Ray Bravo, Watts Towers Art Center Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1995 The Black Box Project, Ground Level Gallery of Art Center South Florida,
Miami Beach, FL
Sculpture in the Landscape, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
1994 Where the Water Tastes Like Cherry Wine, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland FL
Chiaroscuro: 1994 Montgomery Biennial, Montgomery Museum of Art, AL
The Body Beautiful, Lower Columbia College, Longview, WA
Miami DADA, Bianca Lanza Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
Exodus, Ground Level Gallery of Art Center South Florida, Miami Beach, FL
1993 Collage & Assemblage, Vero Beach Museum, Vero Beach, FL
Southern Roots: South Florida Invitational, Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Miami/Beach Exchange, Ground Level Gallery of ACSF, Miami Beach, FL
A Caribbean Affair: Watercolor and Photography, The Zora Neale Hurston National
Museum of Fine Arts, Eatonville, FL
African American Artists, City Hall Gallery, Orlando, FL
1992 Next Generation: Southern Black Aesthetic (Touring Exhibition)
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
1991 Next Generation: Southern Black Aesthetic, (Touring Exhibition)
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Interior Motives, Interior Motifs, Lower Columbia College, Longview, WA
Impressions: From Afrika to Amerika, Gusman Center for the Performing Arts,
Miami, FL
Martin County Black Heritage Association Invitational, Martin County Cultural
Courthouse, Stuart, FL
1990 Next Generation: Southern Black Aesthetic, (Touring Exhibition)
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
Ten Years of Kuumba: 1980-1990, North Gallery, Miami-Dade Community
College, Miami, FL
Miami: Thriving in change (1940-1990), North Dade Regional Library,
North Beach Miami, FL
Photography Today, Peter Drew Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
Three Black Artists, Northwood University, W. Palm Beach, FL
1989 Sea Oaks Invitational, Sea Oaks Resort, Vero Beach, FL
Florida Competitive, Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
38th All Florida Juried Competition, Boca Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
Zack-Schuster Gallery Invitational, Zack-Schuster Gallery, Aventura, FL
1988 Boke N’Deye, Bakehouse Art Complex Main Gallery, Miami, FL
Kuumba Artists Showcase, Model City Cultural Center, Miami, FL
Vero Beach Art Club Invitational, Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
1987 Ancestral Projections, North Dade Regional Library, North Miami Beach, FL
Native Son, Model City Cultural Center, Miami, FL
COLLECTIONS
Oolite Arts Miami Beach, Florida
FIU Frost Art Museum, Miami Florida
Carrie Meek Foundation, Miami Dade Art in Public Places, FL
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL
Shoreline School District, Seattle, WA
Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, WA
Sequim School District, Sequim, WA
Village of Arts & Humanities, Philadelphia, PA
Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL
Girls’ Club Collection, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Mosquera Family Art Collection, Coral Gables, FL
Miami Dade College, Museum of Art + Design, FL
SELECTED AWARDS/FELLOWSHIPS/COMMISSIONS, & RESIDENCIES
2024 Residency: Atlantic Center for the Arts, 2024 with William Cordova
2022 Oolite Arts Presents Place as Pilgrimage: Onajide Shabaka, Windows at Walgreens,
Miami Beach, FL
2022 Her Touch Smooths Rough Waters, Art on the Plaza, MoCa Nomi, North Miami, FL
2022 Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, North Miami, FL (site sculpture)
2020 AIRIE Everglades Artist Residency, Everglades National Park, FL
2020 IS Projects Bookmaking Residency
2019 Locust Projects Wavemaker Grant
2018 Oolite Arts The Ellies Grant
2018 Locust Projects Wavemaker Grant
2017 African Rice & Maroon Subsistence Farming Residency, Paramaribo, Suriname
2015 AIRIE Everglades Artist Residency, Everglades National Park, FL
Project Row Houses, Visiting Artist, Houston, TX
2014 DVCAI Artist Residency, Mexico
2012 Trading Places, artist-in-residence, Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL
Creative Investment Grant, Broward County, FL
1994 New Forms Florida, Individual Artist Grant
Individual Artist Fellowship, Florida Department of Cultural Affairs.
1989 Purchase Award, Vero Beach Art Museum, Vero Beach, FL
1988 Florida Humanities Council (symposium)
1987 Merit Award, watercolor, Sunstreet Festival, Miami, FL
Judges Recognition, photography, Sunstreet Festival, Miami, FL
Purchase Award, Native Son exhibition, Model City Cultural Center, Miami, FL
BIBLIOGRAPHY WORKS IN CATALOGUES
2014 The Moment. The Backdrop. The Persona, Narrative in Contemporary Art from the
Collection of Francie Bishop Good and David Hortivz, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Lyrical Witness, Onajide Shabaka (author)
2008 SuperMix: Union of the Diverse: Contemporary Art in Miami, Charo Oquet, Editor, Edge Zones Press, Miami, FL
ArtForum magazine, April, 2008
Continental Shifts: The Art of Edouard Duval Carrie, Edward J. Sullivan, Editor, Herman 2007 Middelanis, Joel Weinstein, Donald J. Cosentino, Publisher: Diego Costa Peuser
Callaloo, Journal of African Diaspora Arts & Letters, Johns Hopkins Uni. Press
2007 Issue-Orients Art, Art & Antiques, (illustrated article)
Miami Contemporary Artists, Paul Clemence & Julie Davidow, Schiffer Publishing,
Atglen, PA.
Art + Auction (various photographs for article on Miami), Dec. 2006
Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and African American, Museum for African
Art, New York, NY
Conversations, Miami-Dade Community College Interamerican Art Gallery, Miami, FL
Ethereal Images: Photographic Installations, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach Community College, Daytona, FL
Crossings, Gallery Antigua, Miami, FL
Sculpture in the Landscape, University of Miami campus, University of Miami,
Coral Gables, FL
Where the Water Tastes Like Cherry Wine, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL
Chiaroscuro: 1994 Montgomery Biennial, Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, AL
Southern Roots: 3rd South Florida Invitational, Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Next Generation: Southern Black Aesthetic, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
Miami/Beach Exchange, Art Center South Florida, Miami Beach, FL
Florida Competitive, Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
REVIEWS/ARTICLES/GENERAL PRESS
2014-15 Bringing the Outdoors in, Indulge Magazine
Carlos Suarez de Jesus, ‘Dirt Yuta Suelo Udongo Tè’ : Onajide Shabaka’s Art Exhibit 2013 About the Most Primordial of Materials, Broward-Palm Beach New Times
Carlos Suarez de Jesus
2012 Anne Tschida Building Bridges in North Miami, Biscayne Times newspaper
Anne Tschida, Art, through the looking glass, Knight Arts Foundation Blog
1998 Turner, Elisa, Exhibit captures small-town feel of African-American like, The Miami
Herald, Miami, FL
1997 Cantor, Judy, Cotton & Iron: Another View, New Times, Miami, FL
Turner, Elisa, Cotton & Iron – redux, The Miami Herald, Miami, FL
1996 Morgan, Ann Barclay, Ethereal Images, Sculpture
Florida Review (Karen Rifas, Carol Brown, Tom Gormley, Ralph Buckley, Maria Brito,
Peter Kuentzel, Robert Chambers, Rowena Luna, Susan Banks, Onajide A. Shabaka,
Rafael Consuegra, Robert Huff, Ingrid Hartlieb) in Sculpture 14, no. 4 pp. 42-43.
1995 Pierce, Susan, UALR’s 3 Galleries, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Little Rock, AR
Dean, Kevin, and Kipling, Kay, The American Experience: Onajide Shabaka,
The 1993 Longboat Observer, Sarasota, FL
Tagliarini, Lynda, Artist advocates multiculturalism, Fort Pierce Tribune, Ft.
Pierce, FL
1992 Kangas, Matthew, Common Ground Separates Choices (Next Generation), Art in
America, New York, NY, Vol. 80, No. 3
1991 Feature Article, The News Tribune
1990 Patterson, Tom, Focus on New African American Art, The Arts Journal
Vol. 15, No.8, Winston-Salem, NC
McQuaid, Kathy, Black Aesthetic is emerging, Journal Messenger, Manassas, VA
1989 Butler, Jeri, Rejoicing in one’s heritage, The Stuart News, Stuart, FL
Pulliam, Nisha, Fort Pierce resident shows off works at Kuumba Artists. Association Exhibition, The Palm Beach Post, W. Palm Beach, FL
Pulliam, Nisha, Boca Museum Juried Exhibition
INTERVIEWS
Art in Ethnobotany, Biscayne Times, Elisa Turner, 2019
Seeing the Obvious, Revealing the Hidden/Yanira Collado in Conversation, BOMB Magazine, 2019
Rice: Seed Journeys in the Americas, Fish & Game Quarterly, 2017
Conversations – Interamerican Art Gallery, Miami-Dade Community College Interamerican Art Gallery, Miami, FL, 1996
TCTV – Vero Beach Live, Vero Beach, FL, May 1989
Wilder, Anne, His Dream, Fort Pierce Tribune, Ft. Pierce, FL, 1977
Wilder, Anne, African Heritage, Fort Pierce Tribune, Ft. Pierce, FL, 31 July 1977
Bartlett, John, African Import Shop, The Palm Beach Post, St. Lucie Co. edition, 23 February 1977
VISITING ARTIST LECTURES, PERFORMANCES, ETC.
2023 Oolite Arts Resident
2020 Artist-in-residence, AIRIE, Everglades National Park, FL
2017 Artist-in-residence, Maroon subsistence farming project, Paramaribo, Suriname
Suriname Rice slide lecture, Anne Kolb Nature Center, Hollywood, FL
Seed Journeys slide lecture, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD
2015 Guest Lecturer, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
Artist-in-residence, AIRIE, Everglades National Park, FL
2014 Between the River and Lagoon, artist-in-residence project, Ft. Pierce, FL
2013 Black Contemporaries Panel, Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL
2012 Artist-in-residence, Anne Kolb Nature Center, Hollywood, FL
2010 Global Caribbean(s): Interrogating the Politics of Location in Caribbean Literature and
Culture, The University of Miami, Coral Gables – March 2010 Research Presentation:
African American Burial Shrines of Florida.
2004 Panel: Meditations on Cultural Aesthetics, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
2001 Artist-in-residence, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
1998 Guest Lecturer, College Reach-Out Program, Indian River Community College, Ft.
Pierce, FL
1996 Guest Lecturer, Black and White Men Together, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
1995 Guest Lecturer, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, Little Rock, AR
1990 The Validity of African American Art, slide lecture, Norton Museum of Art, W. Palm
Beach, FL
1989 Tradition and Change in the Next Decade, lecture, Cultural Arts Conference, Ft.
Pierce, FL
1988 Artist-in-residence, Indian River County School District, Vero Beach, FL
WRITINGS
2018 Seeds of Diaspora, conference on Legacy of Slavery & Indentured Labour, Anton de
Kom, University of Suriname
2002 Living With Contradictions, www.miamiartexchange.com
Ultrabaroque: Post-, Hybridity, and Latin American Art
Is it real, or is it…: the work of Donald Lipski, Miami Art Exchange
Houses of the Spirit, Miami Art Exchange
2001 The Structure of Puryear, Miami Art Exchange
Homage to Denise Andrews, Miami Art Exchange
Equal but Separate Exhibition, Miami Art Exchange
1997 Medicines of a Reconstructed Past: African American Burial Art in Florida (Tomb With
a View), Lyndhurst, OH
Afrikan Roots, weekly columnist, The Chronicle, Ft. Pierce, FL
Interview with Gary Moore, Art Papers, Vol. 20, Jan/Feb 1996, pp. 10-13
1996 View From Beyond the Scared Garden: Interview with Edouard Duval-Carrié, Art
Papers, Vol. 20, Jul/Aug 1996, pp. 14-17
NTU Arts Newsletter, Editor, Publisher, 1989-1991
1994 Glassman: Dale Chihuly, Sarasota Arts Review, Vol. 5 Issue 3,pp. 10-14
1989 Freelance Writer, The Florida Mirror, Palm Beach County, FL
TEACHING
2013 New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL
2002-2009 Florida Atlantic University, Dept. of Visual Arts and Art History, Main Campus,
Boca Raton, FL – Adjunct & Visiting Professor
2000-2002 Broward Community College, Dept. Visual & Performing Arts, Adams
Campus, Davie, FL – Adjunct Professor
1995-2000 Miami-Dade Community College, Dept. of Arts and Philosophy, Wolfson
Campus, Miami, FL – Adjunct Professor
COURSES TAUGHT
New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL
– experimental drawing
Florida Atlantic University, Dept. of Arts and Philosophy, Main Campus, Boca Raton, FL
– digital photography – photography 1, photography 2, photographic computer imaging, photography & creative nonfiction writing, computer imaging for fine arts
Broward Community College, Dept. of Arts & Philosophy, Adams Campus, Davie, FL – Adjunct Professor
– computer art, web design, art appreciation
Miami-Dade Community College, Dept. of Arts and Humanities, Wolfson Campus, Miami, FL – Adjunct Professor
– painting, beginning drawing, figure drawing, 2D design, 3D design and art history
COMMUNITY SERVICE and CONFERENCES ORGANIZED
1990 Leadership Conference, NTU Arts Newsletter, Ft. Pierce, FL Cultural Arts
Conference, Director & Moderator.
1989 Director, Afro-American Cultural Exposition for the Arts, Ft. Pierce, FL Cultural
Arts Conference
1988 Spirit of a People, Co-Director and Project Consultant, symposium sponsored by
Florida Humanities Council and Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
ORGANIZATIONS
2007 – 2011 South Florida Artist Entrepreneurs Group, Founder, Organizer
1998 African Diaspora Fine Arts Committee, Education Committee, Miami, FL
1995 Art Center South Florida, Exhibition Committee, Miami Beach, FL
1988-1994 Kuumba Artists Association, Board of Directors, Miami, FL
1993 South Carolina Arts Commission, FYI 1994-95, Juror, Individual Artist Fellowship
1990 St. Lucie County Cultural Affairs Council, Reorganization Sub-committee on
Mission Statement/Bylaws, Ft. Pierce, FL
1989 Treasure Coast Fine Arts Festival, St. Lucie County Department of Parks and
Recreation, Art Juror, Ft. Pierce, FL
1988 Martin County Black Heritage Association, Board of Directors, Stuart, FL
1988 Black Gold: The Wealth of African and African American Culture, Steering of
Committee, sponsored by Florida Humanities Council and St. Lucie County
Department Parks and Recreation, Ft. Pierce, FL
EDUCATION
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont, MFA in Visual Art
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, BFA in Photography
Pacific Fashion Institute, San Francisco, California
California College of the Arts, Oakland, California
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
Los Angeles Harbor College, Wilmington, California
Oakwood University, Huntsville, Alabama
Related
Artist, Event
July 21, 2022
Exhibition
April 15, 2022
Exhibition
May 28, 2021
