Bearing Light and Finding Belonging in Tavares Strachan’s Riot of References

Elephant Magazine
by KATRINA NZEGWU, JUL. 1, 2024
Born in Nassau, Bahamas, and living and working in New York City, Strachan’s enticingly undefinable practice oscillates between the somatic and scientific; macro and micro – at once personal and collective; ceaselessly informative in a manner that evades pedantry.

Why is there a ship on top of the Hayward Gallery? Artist and explorer Tavares Strachan explains

The Standard
by NICK CLARK, JUN. 19, 2024
Anyone walking over Waterloo Bridge during the past week may have been surprised to see an ocean liner on top of the Hayward Gallery. It was put there by Tavares Strachan, who has been described as “one of the most compelling, imaginative and audacious artists of his generation”. It’s not hard to see why.

Tavares Strachan review – encyclopaedic art that sizzles with life

The Guardian
by ADRIAN SEARLE, JUN, 17, 2024
From a hut that plays music as if it’s history’s jukebox to a rocket fuelled with sugarcane, the Bahamian makes art freighted with history and peopled by the overlooked and flawed.

Merging Past and Present, Tavares Strachan Wrests Light from Darkness in His Expansive Installations

Colossal
by KATE MOTHES, MAY 16, 2024
In his recent large-scale, immersive exhibition Magnificent Darkness with Marian Goodman Gallery in Los Angeles, Strachan positioned The Encyclopedia of Invisibility like a nucleus around which all other installations revolved. He even included a “pocket” edition of the book on a bespoke acrylic stand that doubled as a container for a pair of white gloves.

Monumental Sculpture Reimagines ‘The Last Supper’ With Black Historical Figures

Smithsonian Magazine
by MARGHERITA BASSI, FEB. 8, 2024
Tavares Strachan’s “The First Supper” took four years to sculpt and is now on display at an exhibition in London.

How Tavares Strachan Reimagined Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’

Artnet
by JO LAWSON-TANCRED, FEB. 5, 2024
The mammoth public sculpture envisions a meeting between notable Black activists, artists, and scientists from the past.

The Last Supper recast: artist Tavares Strachan on reimagining Da Vinci’s dinner guests

The Guardian
by Skye Sherwin, DEC. 26, 2023
He replaced Christ with Haile Selassie and took Judas’s place himself. The Bahamian’s epic artistic revisions, from space to the Arctic, hit Britain in 2024 – and the Royals are in his sights.

TAVARES STRACHAN “DO AND BE” AT PERROTIN SEOUL [video]

Perrotin
SEP. 30, 2023
Tavares Strachan shares personal insight behind his show “Do and Be” at Perrotin Seoul: “I fell in love with the title many years ago when I was doing research on pioneer Marcus Garvey. He used this phrase ‘do and be’ and when I looked deeper into his use of it, I started to realize it was popping up in various cultures around the world, and it was a kind of symbol or signifier of action and activity which, for me, really coalesces the nature of being an artist. You’re doing and you’re being, constantly.”

Tavares Strachan

MacArthur Foundation
OCT. 12, 2022
Tavares Strachan is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist expanding the possibilities for what art can be and illuminating overlooked contributions of marginalized figures throughout history.

Tavares Strachan: A Leap in History

Numéro art
by DONATIEN GRAU, OCT. 2022
In the wake of his 2019 Venice Biennale show, the Bahamas-born artist is back with a double exhibition in Paris at Perrotin and Galerie Marian Goodman, mixing times and cultures, he honours that which history forgot.

The Cosmic Vision of Tavares Strachan

Vogue
BY DODIE KAZANJIAN, APR. 29, 2022
When the Bahamas-born Tavares Strachan was a graduate art student at Yale, he cut a four-and-a-half-ton block of ice from an Alaskan river and FedExed it to his elementary school in Nassau, where it was enshrined in a glass freezer powered by solar energy. What on earth possessed him to do such a thing?

The Visibility Artist: Tavares Strachan

Village Voice
by CHRISTIAN VIVEROS-FAUNÉ, APR. 27, 2022
From making art objects to creating experiences, the Bahamian artist brings forward what has been forgotten, and unlearns what has been mistaught.

Art Forum Top Ten: Tavares Strachan

Artforum
by TAVARES STRACHAN, MAR. 2021
1. JUNKANOO- While I was growing up in the Bahamas, one of my earliest memories was of my mother waking me up at midnight on Christmas to go to Junkanoo, a Bahamian street parade with African roots. It combines live music and dance with elaborate handmade costumes and occurs every year on Boxing Day and on New Year’s Day.

The Kudos Project: Nassau’s answer to Nasa gets a fashion launch pad

Financial Times
by CHARLENE PREMPEH, DEC. 23, 2020
Is it clothes? Art? Space exploration? Or philanthropy? All of the above, says artist Tavares Strachan

In Plain Sight review – Tavares Strachan’s baffling, thrilling, uplifting visions

The Guardian
by ADRIAN SEARLE, SEP. 8, 2020
You only get an hour to explore the Bahamian’s strange and astonishing worlds, populated by everyone from James Baldwin to Haile Selassie and the Queen. It’s not nearly enough. Plunged into darkness, the first thing you see is the shimmering, near-skeletal figure of Cuban prima ballerina Alicia Alonso glowing in the distance.

The Artist Whose Medium Is Science

New York Times
by ZOË LESCAZE, SEP. 16, 2020
RIGHT NOW, SEVERAL hundred miles overhead, a golden urn with the face of a forgotten man is circling Earth, a passenger on a black satellite. “Enoch,” one of Tavares Strachan’s most ambitious works of art, is a tribute to Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut, who died in a supersonic jet crash in 1967 before he could reach space.

Crystal Bridges’s New Space the Momentary Targets Millennial Art Lovers

Artsy
by JACK RADLEY, FEB. 26, 2020
On February 22nd, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art inaugurated the Momentary, a satellite space for visual, performing, and culinary arts. The new space expands the institution’s cultural footprint in Bentonville, Arkansas, to solidify the city as a preeminent arts hub. The Momentary offers an innovative approach to integrating art into everyday experiences for art-world cognoscenti and newcomers alike.

Frieze LA Will Use Paramount Backlot to Explore Truth, Lies, Hollywood

LA Times
by DEBORAH VANKIN, DEC. 17, 2019
New York artist Tavares Strachan, who grew up in the Bahamas, will show a free-standing neon sculpture that reads “Sometimes Lies Are Prettier.” It will appear “smack dab in the middle of the backlot,” Gonzalez said, addressing not only Hollywood and its fictions but also the national political landscape and conversations around truth.

In San Francisco, Wielding Influence (Gently) Through Art

New York Times
by TED LOOS, OCT. 23, 2019
The exhibition features 20 artists, some of whom have done special commissions for it, and it has an international flavor — perhaps ironically, given the title’s original all-American slant. Many of the participants were born outside of the United States or work in other countries. … The title and concept were especially appealing to the artist Tavares Strachan, who grew up in Nassau in the Bahamas and now lives and works mostly in New York.“‘Soft power’ is a contradiction in terms,” Mr. Strachan said over the summer, on a brief break from creating new work in his large Chelsea studio. “But yin and yang is a fundamental part of making anything compelling.”

Proceeds From New York Exhibition To Be Given To Hurricane Relief Efforts In The Bahamas: Tavares Strachan

Art Insider
by DAVID GUIDO PIETRONI, SEP. 7, 2019
In a move which should be applauded by everyone, Artist Tavares Strachan has announced major relief for the Bahamas. You might be aware that a major hurricane has hit the Bahamas and has left with a massive loss to life and property. Now, it will be tough for the re-building efforts which have already started in the Bahamas. As a part of efforts from his side, Artist Tavares says that he will give his proceeds from the New York Exhibition to Hurricane Relief Efforts in the Bahamas.

The main exhibition at Arsenale – Venice Art Biennale 2019

Inexhibit
by FEDERICA LUSIARDI, MAY 21, 2019
A tribute to Robert Henry Lawrence Jr – the first African-American astronaut, who died in a flight accident in 1967 – Strachan’s sculptural installation is, at the same time, a touching piece of art, a celebration of an American hero, and a sharp reprove of the racism that harassed Lawrence throughout his life, and after his death.

Venice Biennale 2019 review – preaching to the converted

The Guardian
by LAURA CUMMING, MAY 12, 2019
The Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan: just pinpoints of light in pitch blackness, describing a figure momentarily suspended as it falls to Earth, a radiant spaceman midway between drawing and sculpture. The death of the first African American astronaut is marked by a rising star of visionary art.

CIFF Taps Artist Tavares Strachan For Exhibition at Copenhagen Fashion Week

PAUSE
by LYNN MOYO, FEB. 5, 2019
Featuring a collection of six unique bomber jackets from Strachan’s B.A.S.E.C collection, as well as video installations, printed materials, photographs, sculptures and neon works, the exhibition which was curated by Nevile Wakefield is the third edition of the Northwind Trilogy presented by NorthMordern. The exhibition documents the artist’s process of making bomber jackets in the Bahamas and examining the synergies between art, fashion, community and exploration. Speaking on the collaboration, NorthMordern Director, Kristian W. Andersen said: “Tavares’s new project B.A.S.E.C. aligns perfectly with our vision and commitment to art, fashion and the future of our city.”

A Pulsating Neon Skeleton by Tavares Strachan Honors Scientist Rosalind Franklin

Colossal
by KATE SIERZPUTOWSKI, JAN. 30, 2019
What Will Be Remembered in the Face of All That is Forgotten is a sculptural neon work by the New York City-based artist Tavares Strachan made between 2014-2015. The five-foot-tall piece includes pulsating neon that mimics the racing of blood through veins, stainless steel to hold the skeleton in place, and a total of seven transformers. The flashing circulatory system is a glowing reminder of English scientist Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to the field of science, mainly the discovery of DNA’s molecular structures.

Tavares Strachan Teams with SpaceX to Launch Satellite-Sculpture into Orbit

New York Times
by FINKEL JORI, NOV. 13, 2018
Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. never made it on a space mission. The first African-American to train as an astronaut with NASA, he died in a supersonic jet crash in 1967, at the age of 32. But the artist Tavares Strachan is getting ready to send the astronaut into space in a manner, to honor his legacy.

Regen Projects: Tavares Strachan

Artillery Magazine
by Christopher Michno, November 14, 2018
The entry into Tavares Strachan’s “Invisibles” exhibition is a kind of anteroom (Six Thousand Years, 2018) evoking something like a private library or even a Wunderkammer. It’s wall to wall, floor to ceiling array of acrylic vitrines, each the exact same size, holds reproductions of pages from the Encyclopedia.

The best of times, the worst of times: art in the age of rising white supremacy

LA Times
by CAROLINA A. MIRANDA, NOV. 9, 2018
To the facade of the museum’s Beaux Arts building, which bears the surnames of thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin and Charles Darwin, artist Tavares Strachan added neon texts that highlight cultural contributions by nonwhite, nonmale figures such as Thelonious Monk and actress and scientist Hedy Lamarr. It’s one of many pieces in the exhibition that signal an openness to the ways in which nuanced multicultural ideas can take root and flourish.

Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announces Tavares Strachan: in broad daylight Museum Publicity

Museum Publicity
by EDITOR, AUG. 4, 2018
BALTIMORE, MD – The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announces it will present Tavares Strachan: In broad daylight, a new site-specific work commissioned by the museum that will be on view beginning August 8, 2018. For this installation, New York-based conceptual artist Tavares Strachan has rendered the words “In broad daylight” in a flowing neon script, setting the BMA’s historic façade aglow day and night for the next six months.

Tavares Strachan Awarded via Art Funds $100,000 Frontier Prize

Artforum
by NEWS DESK, OCT. 16, 2018
The VIA Art Fund and the World Frontiers Forum announced that Tavares Strachan has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Frontier Art Prize, an annual $100,000 award dedicated to honoring a visual artist whose practice reflects a pioneering spirit and whose work addresses global challenges. “The Frontier Art Prize continues to be an experimental project, one that aims to make direct and impactful connections between art and our future,” Bridgitt Evans, the founder of the VIA Art Fund, said in a statement.

Art in America, Talk About the Weather: Art and Climate Change

Art in America Magazine
by MICHAEL McCANNE, AUG. 16, 2018
“Sometimes lies are prettier.” The large neon sign throws an ultramarine glow across the floor of a dark room at the Storm King Art Center in Cornwall, New York. Presented as part of an exhibition on climate change, the sign seemed to mock the self-deceptions that numb us to impending ecological catastrophe: that technology will save us, that it is not too late to turn back the clock. In the corner, an upright AC unit struggled and failed to reduce the sweltering humidity. The room was hot. The world is getting hotter.

The Ghosts of Our Future Climate at Storm King

Hyperallergic
by LOUIS BURY, JUL. 29, 2018
Economic indicators are classified as one of three types, according to their timing: lagging indicators, such as unemployment rate, are measurements that change only after the economy as a whole changes; coincident indicators, such as retail sales, change at approximately the same time as the economy; and leading indicators, such as stock market returns, change before the rest of the economy. Each type of indicator thus provides information about the economy’s past, present, or future.

Carnegie International Preview

Artnet
by TAYLOR DAFOE, AUG. 1, 2018
[…] on the museum’s exterior will be a project by Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan, who was inspired by a “feature of the museum,” Schaffner says. But she won’t tell us just what that feature is until the work is unveiled at the opening of the exhibition itself on October 13. “The gift of the surprise is part of the work,” she says. But she did give one little hint: “Prepare to be illuminated.”

Tavares Strachan: In Broad Daylight

BmoreArt
by CARA OBER, AUG. 8, 2018

Strachan is a conceptual artist who melds aspects of environmental and biological science to create large scale sculptures and installation, all functioning as metaphoric barriers to environmental and cultural history. According to a statement at the Frye, “Many of his projects investigate the nature of invisibility, calling into question the conditions that frame and legitimize certain cultural knowledge and histories while obscuring and erasing others.”

Why the World’s Top Scientists Are Clamoring to Collaborate With Conceptual Artist Tavares Strachan

Artnet
by SARAH CASCONE, MAR. 22, 2018
Now, Strachan is teaming up with some of the world’s top scientists at both Seattle’s Allen Institute and SpaceX in California to hatch ideas that, as hard as it is to imagine, might be even more ambitious than what he’s done before. Strachan will serve as the first ever artist-in-residence at the Allen Institute, the research organization founded in 2003 by Microsoft co-founder and collector Paul Allen. He will visit the center every month for the rest of the year to collaborate with a wide range of experts, including neuroscientists, cell biologists, bioengineers, and computational modelers.

Conceptual Artist Tavares Strachan Joins Allen Institute as First Artist-In-Residence

Allen Institute
Press Release | MAR. 21, 2018
The Allen Institute today announced that conceptual artist Tavares Strachan has joined the Allen Institute as the Institute’s first Artist-in-Residence. As a globally-recognized artist who works on a massive scale from space to the arctic to living systems and human design, Strachan often explores the intersection of art, science, and the environment, making the unseen visible.

Artist Tavares Strachan’s Show at Frye Packed with Subversive Drama

The Seattle Times
by GARY FAIGIN, FEB. 6, 2018

Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan is nothing if not ambitious. His theatrical, packed-to-the-gills exhibition at the Frye Art Museum aims to supplant the outworn heroes and cultural assumptions of the Western canon with new heroes, histories and paradigms. Although Strachan’s artistic means are familiar — favoring installations, collage and repurposed signage — he has an extremely effective visual style, and to say that his work is labor-intensive would be a vast understatement. Take the three giant photographic portraits that are part of the artist’s Constellation series, depicting diverse historical personalities he considers unjustly neglected. Here, spotlit in a darkened room and reflected like the Lincoln Memorial in a temporary reflecting pond placed on the floor, are Everest climber Tenzing Norgay, composer Butch Morris and Queen Min of Korea.

Exhibit Review: Always, Sometimes, Never

The Daily
by CLAMIDAE FORD, FEB. 1, 2018

Tavares Strachan, a conceptual artist from the Bahamas recently had his work put on display at the Frye Art Museum to showcase his new works, in an exhibit called, “Always, Sometimes, Never.” The exhibit expressed Strachan’s ability to work with many mediums. He focuses on the nature of invisibility, aiming to legitimize and obscure cultural histories and knowledge while also examining the relationship between art, science, and the environment. Strachan toys with invisibility and perception, urging us to imagine what lies beyond. His artwork achieves the profound sense of what is and isn’t reality while also trying to teach us who and what we have overlooked as a society.

An Artist Dug 400 Holes in the Desert to Write This Enlightening Message

Creators Project
by ANTWAUN SARGENT, MAR. 1, 2017 

The phrase “Soham” means I am in Sanskrit. It’s a mantra for people who follow Vedic teachings to identify with the universe. Over the last six weeks, artist Tavares Strachan has been digging the English translation into the Mojave Desert. Comprised of nearly 400 neon-lit craters, Strachan’s I Am now spreads across 100,000 square feet of desert floor to inaugurate Desert x 2017, a new, desert art biennial taking place near Palm Springs, California.

Desert X aims to be the Coachella of the art world. Here’s a sneak peak

LA Times
by DEBORAH VANKIN, FEB. 23, 2017

Dozens of craters crowd this desert plot, four acres of scrub brush in Rancho Mirage rimmed by reddish-brown mountains. The holes form half-moon slivers, squares and elongated triangles, each several feet deep and lined with neon tubing. As the sun sinks, the craters glow brighter and brighter, bathing visitors in a golden haze… From above, the more than 400 craters spell out a simple but suggestive phrase: “I Am!” Tavares says, jubilant, hovering over the monitor during this inaugural test run.

Total chaos: a selection of Bob Rennie’s art cache goes on display in Vancouver

Wallpaper
by HADANI DITMARS, MAR. 2016

For its 12th exhibition, Vancouver’s Rennie Collection offers up a bit of metatheatre along with its private collection…A whole world of art and issues are explored: from NYC-based Bahamian Tavares Strachan’s I belong here – a beautiful explosion of fragmented neon text – to Gilbert and George’s Bomb, playing on terror headlines found in the Evening Standard, to African American Hank Willis Thomas’ Priceless, fusing a MasterCard slogan with an image from his cousin’s funeral.

Rewarding exhibitions by Tavares Strachan and Barry McGee

SFGate
by CHARLES DESMARAIS, DEC. 4, 2015

Tavares Strachan calls upon his impressive skills as a glassmaker to fabricate uncannily delicate objects that nevertheless bear a heavy conceptual weight. The centerpiece of this, his gallery debut in San Francisco, is a pulsing blue neon, full-scale glass facsimile of the human circulatory system. The figure, raised above a pedestal at the end of a darkened hall, its arms extended in a gesture of welcome and protection, appears to pause mid-ascension. A whining chorus of transformer cooling fans is the only sound, the flickering of heart and veins the only light.

Art Basel Miami Beach 2015 at the Miami Beach Convention Center

Miami New Times
by GEORGE MARTINEZ, DEC. 2, 2015

Art Basel Miami Beach opened its doors to VIPs and collectors for the 14th edition of its U.S. incarnation. Spotted roaming the convention floor on opening day were celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Bay, and Brett Ratner.

Tavares Strachan expose à Saint Barthélemy

SXMinfo
by ANNE CEFFREY, NOV. 25, 2015

Nouvelle exposition à la galerie Fergus McCaffrey de Saint-Barthélemy de l’artiste Tavares Strachan. C’est sa première exposition dans les Caraïbes, intitulée « How to make someone invisible » (comment rendre une personne invisible), un thème qu’il travaille depuis longtemps. L’artiste s’est également penché sur la manière dont une société choisit et efface certains aspects de sa culture pour raconter son histoire.

‘It’s Never Really Over’: Tavares Strachan on His New, Rosalind Franklin-Inspired Show

ArtNews
by ELLA COON, NOV. 12, 2015

Tavares Strachan, the Nassau, Bahamas-born artist, makes conceptual works that tackle science, sociology, history, and technology. His latest exhibition, “Seeing is Forgetting the Thing that You Saw,” is on view now at Anthony Meier Fine Arts in San Francisco through December 11. Its focus is on Rosalind Franklin—the historically overlooked scientist who laid the groundwork for Francis Crick and James Watson’s discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure. I spoke with Strachan on the phone about the show, the nature of time, and his own motivations for making art.

An Artful Ode to an Undersung Chemist

New York Times
by ANN BINLOT, NOV. 6, 2015

For his new exhibition, “Seeing is Forgetting the Thing that You Saw,” at Anthony Meier Fine Arts in San Francisco, Strachan turned to the world of science. He discovered Rosalind Franklin, an English chemist whose X-ray diffraction images aided in deciphering the helical structure of DNA, helping Watson and Crick determine their groundbreaking model in 1953.

Tavares Strachan Goes Big

The 50 Most Exciting Artists of 2014

#7 Tavares Strachan: The Bahamian artist’s inspiring 100-foot pink neon sign You Belong Here (2014) lit up the Mississippi river as well as 2014’s ambitious Prospect.3 biennial.

Bright Prospects

Artforum
by LINDA YABLONSKY, OCT. 31, 2014

After an Uptown pit stop at Tulane University’s Newcomb Art Gallery, it was dusk—time for an opening-weekend performance by Tavares Strachan (pronounced “Strawn”). After listening to Timothy “Speed” Levitch, a professional tour guide, spiel about the origins of the po’-boy sandwich and other local histories, about a hundred people gathered on Esplanade Avenue Wharf to sip prosecco and witness the launch of Strachan’s bright P.3-pink neon on a donated, 120-foot-long Mississippi River barge. YOU BELONG HERE, it said. Sweet words they were, too. The citizens liked it. “We’re used to moving heavy equipment, not neon signs,” said Porter Randall, a representative of the barge company. “So working with Tavares has been a lot of fun.”

The Best Art Shows in Seattle: Winter 2017/2018

The Stranger
by EMILY POTHAST, JULIA RABAN, and JOULE ZELMAN, DEC. 14, 2017

Frye Art Museum: Tavares Strachan: Always, Sometimes, Never (Jan 27-April 15): Born and raised in the Bahamas and currently based in New York, Tavares Strachan is a conceptual artist whose work in a diverse range of media investigates the overlapping domains of science, technology, and history—in particular the hidden stories and agendas behind common cultural narratives. His signature media include neon sculpture and projected lights, often presented alongside reflecting pools that suggest the distortion of perception and reveal invisible implications. Strachan has exhibited widely, including at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Always, Sometimes, Never is the first presentation of his work in Seattle.

Tavares Strachan Joins RISD Board

Artnet News
by TIM SCHNEIDER, NOV. 17, 2017

The multidisciplinary artist will join the Rhode Island School of Design board for a three-year term through May 2020. Meanwhile, the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Boston announced Strachan as one of five new appointments to its advisory committee.

Storm King Show to Focus on Climate Change in 2018

New York Times
by DANIEL McDERMON, DEC. 14, 2017

The artist Tavares Strachan is presenting a work in Storm King’s indoor gallery in the form of a neon sign that reads “Sometimes lies are prettier.” It tweaks the all-too-human capacity for self-deception that has made climate change so difficult to address. “The truth is actually very tenuous,” Mr. Strachan said, “so I was really trying to play around with that idea, of all the things that we tell ourselves, or things that we like to believe, that end up becoming our realities.

Making an Entrance

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
by CRISTINA ROUVALIS, WINTER 2018
Tavares Strachan knows how to light up the sky. In his native Nassau, Bahamas, he once launched glass rockets blown from local beach sand into the stratosphere using sugarcane as fuel. As fragments fell and crashed into the surf, he captured the event on film and collected the relics for display.