Awol Erizku Ethiopian-American, b. 1988

Born in Gondar, Ethiopia, in 1988, Awol Erizku is a Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist working in photography, film, sculpture and installation, creating a new vernacular that bridges the gap between African and African American visual culture. Erizku's work rejects Eurocentric notions of art and beauty in favour of building his singular Afrocentric aesthetic, something he refers to as "Afro-esotericism" , whilst referencing art history, hip hop and spirituality, amongst other subjects, in his work. Erizku received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union, New York, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Art, New Haven. Erizku’s work has been exhibited at prominent institutions including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto; and FLAG Art Foundation, New York. He also brings high concept to commercial photography highlighting cultural and creative leaders for publications such as The New Yorker, New York Magazine, GQ and Vanity Fair. Erizku's works are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; By Art Matters (Hangzhou Contemporary Art Museum), Hangzhou; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Erizku lives and works between Los Angeles, and New York.