Exposition: Dawit L. Petros

Born in Asmara, Eritrea

Education

Whitney Independent Study Program
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MFA Concordia University, Montreal, QC, BFA (Photography) University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, BA (History)

Solo Exhibitions

The Stranger’s Notebook, H&R Block Artspace, Kansas City, MI, 2016
The Stranger’s Notebook, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK, 2016
Sense of Place, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 2013
Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of Seven), Print Studio, Hamilton, ON, 2012
Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of Seven), Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA, 2011
Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of Seven), Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY, 2011 Mimesis, Marilia Razuk Galeria De Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2011
Dawit L. Petros, Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, MN, 2011
Addis/Chromes, Atelier Art Gallery, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2010
Remix, Prefix Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2006

Group Exhibitions

Intermittent Rivers, 13th Havana Biennial in Matanzas, 2019
Public Volumes, Small Arms Inspection Building, Mississauga, ON
How the light gets in, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 2019
Nine Moments for Now, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, Harvard, Cambridge, MA, 2018
Recent Histories, Huis Marseille Museum Voor Forografie, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2018
HERE:Locating Contemporary Canadian Artists, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, ON, 2018
Afrotopia: The African Photography Biennial, Africa Museum, Berg en Dal, Netherlands, 2018
Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2018
Here We Are, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, 2018
Nowhere Is A Place, Rencontres de Bamako, Bamako Biennale, (Black Athena Collective), Bamako, Mali, 2017
Deconstructed Spaces, Surveyed Memories, Bamako Biennale, Bamako, Mali, 2017
Prospect.4 The Lotus In Spite of the Swamp, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LO, 2017
Lack of Location, Is My Location, Koenig & Clinton Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
In Search Of, Transmitter, New York, NY, 2017
Recent Histories, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Ulm, Germany, 2017
In each hand I keep each of my eyes, Hampshire College Art Gallery, Amherst, MA, 2017
Capture Image Festival, Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, Vancouver, BC, 2017
Recent Histories, The Walther Collection Project Space, New York, NY, 2016
Africans in America, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, SA, 2016
Position As Desired, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON, 2016
Encounters Beyond Borders, Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University, Athens, OH, 2016
Race, Love, and Labor, Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY, 2016
The View From Here, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK, 2015
In Another Place, And Here, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC, 2015
Hopes and Impediments, Prince Claus Fund Gallery, Amsterdam, NL, 2014
Under Another Name, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 2014
Race, Love, and Labor, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY, 2014
Earth Matters: The Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Earth Matters: The Land As Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, 2013
American Beauty, Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC, NY, 2013
Whitney ISP Exhibition, Temp Gallery, New York, NY, 2013 The Bearden Project, Studio Museum In Harlem, NY, 2012
Artists-In-Residence Exhibition, McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC, 2012
Sawdust and Solitude, Artist-In-Residence Exhibition, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS, 2012 Position As Desired, Royal Ontario Museum, Pier 21, The Canadian Museum of Immigration, Halifax, NS, 2012
Mimesis, Lianzhou International Photo Festival, Lianzhou, China, 2011
Always Moving Forward, Platform Gallery, Winnipeg, MB, 2011
Don’t Panic, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, SA, 2011
Becoming, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC, 2011
The Idea of North, Biscuiterie, Dakar, Senegal, 2011
The Production of Space, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 2011
Position As Desired, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, 2011
The Laundromat Project, Collette Blanchard Gallery, New York, NY, 2010
Made in Woodstock V, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, 2010
Always Moving Forward, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON, 2010
Encodings, Artist-In-Residence, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 2009
Liminal Space, The Lay Up, Brooklyn, NY, 2009
Young Curators: New Ideas 2, PPOW Gallery, New York, NY, 2009
The New Language Makers, Videotage, Hong Kong, China, 2009
Site Seeing: Explorations of Landscape, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, 2009 Flow, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 2008
Becoming, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI, 2008
Subpoena, Talman + Monroe, Brooklyn, NY, 2008
Floating Architectures and Constant Centers: Some Projections, Martin, 2008 Art Gallery, Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, 2008
The Idea of North, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Tufts University Gallery, Medford, MA, 2007 Wedge Retrospective Exhibition, Wedge Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2007
CAA Regional MFA Exhibition, Mass College of Art, Boston, MA, 2006
Alone, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON, 2006
Wish, Bagg Gallery, Boston, MA, 2005
Visions of Active Citizenship, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 2005
Strike Black, Observatoire 4, Montreal, QC, 2004
The Lexington Project, Site Specific Installation, Lexington, MA, 2004
Omiala, Harbour Front Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2004
Transliteration, Gallery 101, Ottawa, ON, 2003
1st Art! Exhibition, 1st Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2003
Translucide, Maison de la Culture, Montreal, QC, 2003
Translucid, Galerie Art Mûr, Montreal, QC, 2003
Green, Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal, QC, 2003
Separate Grounds, Gallery VAV, Montreal, QC, 2003
Too Big To Stay Small, Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal, QC, 2002
A Relative Proximity, Lotus Eaters Gallery, Montreal, QC, 2002

Awards and Residencies

Visiting Artist, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, 2017
Visiting Artist, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2015-2016 Artist-In-Residence, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL, 2015
Canada Council for the Arts, Long Term Project Grant, 2014-2015
Invisible Borders TransAfrican Photography Collective, Artist-In-Residence, Lagos, Nigeria, 2014 Whitney Museum, Independent Study Program Fellowship, 2012 Salina Art Center, Artist-in-Residence, Salina, KA, 2012
The Print Studio, Artist-in-Residence, Hamilton, Canada, 2012
McColl Center for Visual Art, Knight Foundation, Artist-In-Residence, 2012
Canada Council for the Arts, Production Grant, 2011
Canada Council for the Arts, Travel Grant, 2011
Addis Ababa Foto Festival, Artist-In-Residence, Ethiopia, 2010
Canada Council for the Arts, Production Grant, 2008
The Studio Museum in Harlem, Artist-In-Residence, 2008
Art Matters Foundation, New York, NY, 2007
Center for Photography at Woodstock, Artist-In-Residence, 2007
Montague International Travel Grant, 2007
International Travel Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2006
Bartlett National Travel Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2006 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2005-2007 Fulbright Fellowship, Canada–United States, 2004–2006
Imperial Tobacco Canada Grant, Montreal, Canada, 2004
Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2004
J. Armand Bombardier Internationalist Fellowship, Montreal, Canada, 2004
Fonds québécois de la recherch sur la société et la culture, Research Scholarship, 2004

Bibliography

Albu, Cristina, “Dawit Petros at Artspace,” TemporaryArtReview.com, January 9, 2017
Affleck, Jane. “Position As Desired Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Halifax.” C Magazine 118, Summer 2013
Armstrong, Neil. “We Are Here,” The Weekly Gleaner, January 11-17, 2018
Azimi, Roxana, “La photographie sous toutes ses formes.” Le Quotidien de L’Art, 20 Mai 2016 Beckwith, Naomi. “Encodings.” Encodings: The Studio Museum in Harlem, Artists in Residence, Exhibition Catalogue, 2009
Branker, Saada. “The Wedge’s Flava.” WordMag, 2007
Byrd, Antawan I., “Listening Along the Wayfarings of Em’kal Eyongakpa and Dawit L. Petros,” Exhibition Catalogue, Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection, 2017
Cappetta, Andrew. “Amani Olu Has New Ideas.” Art in America. August 2009
“Contact”, Now Magazine, May 2006
“Contact Goes Global”, Doze, May 2006
Cotter, Holland. “Encodings: Khalif Kelly, Adam Pendleton, Dawit L. Petros.” The New York Times, October 22, 2009
Cotter, Holland, “American Beauty.” The New York Times, January 23, 2014
Cotter, Holland. “Out of Africa, Whatever Africa May Be.” The New York Times, April 4, 2008 Cousineau-Levine. Penny, “Alone: Fitting In.” (Exhibition Catalogue). 2006
Crooks, Julie. “Position As Desired.” (Exhibition Catalogue). 2010
Dee, Christa, “Dawit L. Petros: Place-making and cultural negotiation,” Bubblegumclub.co.za, 2017
Díaz, Eva. “Prospect.4: In New Orleans, a global triennial fails to learn from its past mistakes,” 4columns.org, January 5, 2018
Dillon, Stephen. “Dawit L. Petros: The Stranger’s Notebook.” Garage Magazine, June, 2016 “Dawit L. Petros: Untitled (Prologue II),” Harpers Magazine Blog, October 28, 2017
“Dawit L. Petros Captures the World with a Camera and a Cardboard Box.” Artsy.net, June 24, 2015
“Dawit L. Petros: The Stranger’s Notebook (Prologue),” Contemporary &, June 2016
Duerr, Teri. “Young Curators on the Art of New Ideas,” New York Art Beat. August 2009 Edmonds, Pamela. “I’ll Make Me A World.” Prefix Photo, 2006
“1st Art.” Canadian Art Fall 2003
“Flava: Wedge Curatorial Projects, 1997–2007.” Wedge Curatorial Projects Catalogue, 2007 Enwezor, Okwui, “Okwui Enwezor on The Recent Histories of African Photography, “Apterture.org, May 4, 2017
Enwezor, Okwui and Okeke-Agulu, Chika. Contemporary African Art Since 1980, October 2009 Fortin, Sylvie. “Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, New Orleans.” C Magazine, 137, Spring 2018
Frater, Sally. “Position As Desired” Exhibition Review, Canadian Art, Spring 2011 Gessell, Paul. “Paraphrasing famous European works of art.” The Ottawa Citizen, 2004 Ghirmay, Huriy. “The Eritrean Diaspora.” Elem Magazine, Issue 14, October-December, 2009 Goodhand, Margo. “Out of Africa, Into Your Homes”, Winnipeg Free Press, 11/12/2011. Hagman, Sarah. “Dawit L. Petros: Sense of Place.” Improper Bostonian, September, 2013
Handelman, Jon. “Re-drawing the Colour Lines.” The McGill Daily, 2004 Harney, Elizabeth. “Shades and Passages: Petros’ colorscapes.” Franklin Art Works, Exhibition Publication, 2012
Haynes, Lauren. “The Bearden Project.” The Bearden Project: The Studio Museum in Harlem, Exhibition Catalogue, 2012 Iduma, Emmanuel, “Here Comes The Stranger,” Exhibition Brochure Text, The Stranger’s Notebook, H & R Block Artspace, January 2017
Iduma, Emmanuel, “Fiction/Non Fiction: ‘Recent Histories’ Presents Documentary-Based Photography from Africa,”, Artnews, May 9, 2017 Indrisek, Scott, “Prospect.4 Brings Big Names to New Orleans–but Doesn’t Take Enough Risks,” Artsy, Nov 20, 2017
Johnson, Paddy. “Pleasant Surprises in the Swamp at Prospect, the New Orleans Triennial,” Hyperallergic, November 22, 2017 Jordan, Betty Ann. “Group Therapy.” Toronto Life, May 2006
“World Remade in Their Image”, The Montreal Gazette. 2003
Khvan, Olga. “Sense of Place Exhibit at the MFA Marks Homecoming for Dawit L. Petros.” Boston Magazine. November 11, 2013
Lacayo, Jessie. “Transliteration.” Exhibition Catalogue, 2004
Lehman, Henry. “Strike Black.” The Montreal Gazette, 2004
Lew, Christopher Y. “A Kind of Blue.” Encodings: The Studio Museum in Harlem, Artists in Residence, Exhibition Catalogue, 2009
Livingston, Wendy. “Art from the Cutting Wedge.: Today Duke, August 11, 2011
Marquet, Thomas. “Dawit L. Petros: Mahber Shaw’ate: Association of 7.” Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Exhibition Publication, 2011
McGirk, James. “Harlem’s Rising Stars.” The Intelligent Life, September, 2009
McQuaid, Cate. “Displacement in a Theoretical World.” Boston Globe, November 12, 2013 Mengiste, Maaza, “Interview With Dawit L. Petros,” Exhibition Catalogue, Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection, 2017 Mercier, Jean, “The Stranger’s Notebook (Prologue),” LensCulture, June 2016
Milbourne, Karen E. “Earth Matters: Land As Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa.” Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Exhibition Catalogue, 2013
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Muluneh, Aida. Addis Ababa Foto Fest, Exhibition Catalogue, 2011
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Public Lectures

Black Athena Collective, “Regimes of Passage,” Violence in the Arts, DFG Research and Training Group Knowledge in Arts, In cooperation with Studium Generale, UdK Berlin
Panelist, Here We Are, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, 2018
Visiting Lecture, Discrepant Modernisms, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, 2017 Visiting Lecture, Decolonising the Archive, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, 2017
Visiting Lecture, The Stranger’s Notebook, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, 2016 Panelist, Beyond the Frame: Contemporary Photography from Africa and the Diaspora, Columbia University, 2016
Visiting Lecture, The Stranger’s Notebook, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, ON, 2016 Panelist, Position As Desired, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON, 2016
Visiting Lecture, The Stranger’s Notebook, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 2016
Dawit L. Petros In Conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Harney, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, 2016
Visiting Lecture, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 2016
Art Connect: Dawit L. Petros in Conversation with Osei Bonsu, Tiwani Contemporary, 2015
Four Photographers Speaker Series, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 2014 Invisible Borders, Goethe Institute, Accra, Ghana, 2014
Invisible Borders, Goethe Institute, Lagos, Nigeria, 2014
Public Lecture, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, 2012
Public Lecture, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS, 2012 Visiting Lecture, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS, 2012
Public Lecture, McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC, 2012
Visiting Lecture, University of Manitoba, School of Art, Winnipeg, MA, 2011
Panelist, Documenting Diaspora(s), Literary Studies Colloquium, Fordham University, New York, NY, 2011 Panelist, Position As Desired, Symposium, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, 2011
Visiting Lecture, Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, CA, 2011
Visiting Lecture, Fordham University, New York, NY, 2011
Panelist, African Literature, Visual Arts, and Film in Local & Transnational Spaces, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 2011
Visiting Lecture, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 2011
Visiting Lecture, Department of Photography, The Cooper Union, 2010
Panelist, Imagery and Africa Conference, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2010
Panelist, The African Art Renaissance, Symposium, World Black Arts Festival, Dakar, Senegal, 2010
Visiting Lecture, Fordham University, New York, NY, 2010
Panelist, Always Moving Forward, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON, 2010
Public Lecture, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA, 2010
Panelist, The Artist’s Voice: Encodings, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 2009
Visiting Lecture, UCI/OCMA Speaker Series, University of California, Irvine, CA, 2009
Visiting Lecture, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
Panelist, The Artist’s Voice: Flow, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 2008
Visiting Lecture, The Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA, 2007
Visiting Lecture, Tufts University, Boston, MA, 2007
Panelist, Alone, Gallery 44, Toronto, ON, 2006
Public Lecture, Prefix Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2006
Visiting Lecture, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, 2006

Collections

BMO Financial Group, 1st Art Collection, Toronto, ON
The Center For Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Gallery 44, Silver Editions, Toronto, ON
Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam, Netherlands Infor Global Solutions, Alpharetta, GA
Saskatchewan Arts Council, Regina, SK
Stanley Mills Collection, Concordia University, Montreal, QC
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON
The University of Toronto Art Museum, Toronto, ON
The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
Wedge Curatorial Project, Toronto, ON