Umar Rashid (b. 1976) was born in Chicago and now lives in Los Angeles. Rashid, also known as ‘Frohawk Two Feathers’ holds a Ba in Cinema & Photography from Southern Illinois University. The artist says: “The main focus of my work is the stories and reinvented histories of people of color, who are oftentimes marginalized and omitted from the historical record, and the intricacies of race, gender, class, and overall power in the colonial world. In the process of writing and illustrating this history, I’ve created alternative narratives that reference the main narrative and focuses on the cosmologies of the empires, with a focus on religion and spirituality. And the common thread throughout the work (aside from the written narrative) employs iconography as a place marker between past, present, and future. This element is realized in the oeuvre in the “Imperial Tattoo System” (a classifying mechanism I use to define and differentiate the characters in the story) and within the maps, and cosmological diagrams. The narrative is also massively informed by the hip hop culture of my youth (golden age), various (modern and ancient) pop culture references, gang and prison culture, and revolutionary movements throughout time”.
Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) Salon, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA (2026); The Epoch of Totalitarinism, Part 3 – The Civil Wars and The Uncivilized Wars (See Power), Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK. (2025); The Kingdom of the Two Californias. La Epoca del Totalitarismo Part 2., BLUM & Poe, Los Angeles CA, USA (2024); Eroica (La Leggenda Di Dolomiti), Studio Della Arte Raffaelli, Trento, Italy (2024); The Undiscovered Genius of the Niger Delta. An Unexcepted Journey Into Chaos Told from the Perspectiove of Someone who wasn’t there. 1799, Tiwani Contemporary, Lagos, Nigeria (2023); ‘If there’s been a way to build it, There’ll be a way to destroy it, Things are not all that out of control. Lepoque Totalitaire part one.’, Almine Rech, London, UK (2023); Kagetora’s dream in the time of Sakoku. (Reds abd Blues). Part 1, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles CA, USA (2023); Umar Rashid: Ancien Regime Change 4,5, and 6, MoMA PS1, NY, USA (2022); Ancien Regime Change part 3: The men who sold the world, Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2022); In Ancien Regime Change part Two. En Germinal: Les Printemps de Guerre, Almine Rech, Paris, France (2022); Art Basel Miami Beach, Booth N24, Tiwani Contemporary, Miami FL, USA Ancien Regime Change: Part One, Can You Dig It?, A Dirge For Cyrus And His Band Of Warriors, Half Gallery, New York NY, USA (2021); PER CAPITA, Transformative Arts, Los Angeles CA, USA (2021); En Garde / On God, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles CA, USA (2021); Culinarialism by Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers), CulturalDC (2021); In the Court of the Crimson Queen or White Lady on a Horse, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK (2020); What is the color when black is burned? (The Gold War Part 1), The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ (2018) 2018); The Free Radicals, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2017); The Messier Objects, (You Get the Gods You Deserve), Part 3 of The Americas 1795, Johannes Vogt, New York, NY (2017); The Belhaven Republic (A Delta Blues), University of Memphis, Galleries A and B, Memphis, TN (2017); That Ain’t Gold, That’s a Soul, New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA (2016); and Rampjaar, #tbt to that time when we didn’t let xenophobia get in the way of some sweet, motherfucking payback, 1789, Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2015).
Group exhibitions include: Améfrica: Diasporic Connections in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection. Curated by Hélio Menezes, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain (2026); Black Gold: Stories Untold, For-Site, San Francisco, CA, USA (2025); Out of the ordinary. Uncommon materials, marks, and matrices, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA, USA (2024); Seeing Is Believing: The Art and Influence of Gérôme, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar Museums, Doha, Qatar (2024); who’s afraid of cartoony figuration?, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas TX, USA (2024); Halfway to Sanity, The Pit Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA, USA (2024); Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, UAE (2023); Black American Portraits, LACMA, Los Angeles CA, USA (2021); By any means, V.O Curations, London, UK (2021); High Voltage Two, Nassima Landau, Tel Aviv, Israel (2021); Made in L.A. 2020: a version, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2020); All the Days and Nights, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2020); 30 Years of Dutch Courage, Galerie Cokkie Snoei Rotterdam, Netherlands (2019); The Fate of Empires, Studio d Arte Raffaeli Trento, Italy (2019); Reimagining Colonial History, Sun Valley Art Center, Sun Valley, Idaho (2019); Cape Town Art Fair (Tyburn Gallery), Cape Town, South Africa (2019); Forever, A Moment: Black Meditations on Time And Space!, SOMA Arts, San Francisco, CA (2019); Personal Truth, El Camino College Museum of Art, Torrance, CA (2019); Serpentine Fire, Quotidian, Los Angeles, CA (2019); 191919191919, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2019); Nada Art Fair (HOUSINGNY Gallery), Miami, Florida (2018); Here, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2018); and Cosmic Traffic Jam (co-curated), Zevitas Marcus Gallery, Culver City, CA (2018).
Highlights and Collections
Rashid’s work is in numerous collections: Zeitz Mocaa; Jorge Perez Collection; The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; The Hudson River Museum; Nevada Museum of Art; Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College; Conseil Regional de la Guadeloupe; The Brooklyn Museum; The Mount Holyoke Art Museum; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art; 21C Museum; The Progressive Collection; and The Artist Pension Trust.