About the artist

Derek Fordjour layered paintings focus on cultural rituals and social practices throughout history. His textured gouache with materials such as cardboard and newspaper then overlap athletes, performers, and crowds of carnival-goers, marching bands, and drum majors are metaphors for the celebration of Black life in the United States and layered inequalities of the past and present. Fordjour's work has been acquired by major institutions and has been exhibited in New York, London, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Turin among other cities. His work belongs in the collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and many other institutions. As he has experimented his paintings with sculptures and elaborate installations.