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Concourse 100

Nari Ward

One Voice

2017 | Shoelaces

Jamaican-born sculptural artist Nari Ward’s allegorical installations reveal issues related to race, poverty and consumer culture through the use of upcycled objects often found in his New York City neighborhood. For the typographical composition One Voice, Ward delineated the letters of the work’s title with more than 8,000 shoelaces, many of which were collected from the Atlanta Falcons and local high school football teams. The multicolored strings appear to drip down the concourse wall, and the contrast of the hard edges and organic outlines represents how opposing dispositions can work together as one.

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Nari Ward

Nari Ward

St. Andrew, Jamaica

Nari Ward’s dramatic sculptural installations are composed of found materials — such as shoelaces, baby strollers and tin cans — systematically collected from his New York City neighborhood. By revealing the many emotions found in everyday objects, Ward, a native of Jamaica, examines issues surrounding race, poverty and consumer culture. The recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Immigrant Artists in 2017, Ward has exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, and elsewhere. Past honors include the Rome Prize, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more. Commissions include work for the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Ward received a B.F.A. from Hunter College and a M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in New York.

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