Installation view at the solo exhibition, Orthostatic Tolerance: It Might Not Be Such A Bad Idea If I Never Went Home Again, at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, USA

artist profile

Tavares Strachan

born

1979

lives and works

New York, USA

education

BFA, Rhode Island School of Design, USA, 2003
MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, USA, 2006

about the artist

Navigating through the polarizing dichotomies of presence and absence, visibility and invisibility, and man and nature, Tavares Strachan has engineered a multidisciplinary artistic practice that mobilizes our visual, intellectual, and emotional faculties. Aeronautical and astronomical science, deep-sea exploration, and extreme climatology are but some of the thematic arenas out of which Strachan creates performative allegories that tell of cultural displacement, human aspiration, and mortal limitation. His ambitious enterprise is fueled by the artist's desire to express himself as well as to educate and empower younger generations. Many of his art projects have incorporated lecture series and classroom discussions, delivered to and implemented with the students and children who come into contact with his displays, so that each is given an opportunity to engage personally and voice their individual reactions. A recipient of accolades such as the Alice B. Kimball Fellowship and the Tiffany Foundation Grant, Strachan has staged solo exhibitions in the Bahamas, Germany, UK and the United States, at venues including the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, the Grand Arts in Kansas City, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He has also participated in group shows held at spaces such as the Queens Museum of Art in New York, USA; the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Germany; the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; the SAFN Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland; and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, USA. His work was also included in Roundabout at the City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand, and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. Strachan represented The Bahamas in the nation’s inaugural pavilion at the 55th International Venice Biennale and also participated in the 16th Biennale de Lyon in 2013. 

  • Selected exhibition history
  • Permanent collections
  • Projects
  • Editions
  • Publications
  • Recent news

2013GROUP Lyon Biennale, La Sucrière, Lyon, France

SOLO National Pavilion of The Bahamas, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

2011SOLO Sometimes Lies Are Prettier, Rossi and Rossi, London, UK

GROUP Roundabout, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel

2010GROUP Roundabout, City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand

SOLO Orthostatic Tolerance: Launching Into An Infinite Distance, Grandarts, Kansas City, USA

SOLO Orthostatic Tolerance: It Might Not Be Such A Bad Idea If I Never Went Home Again, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, USA

2009SOLO You Can Do Whatever You Like (Orthostatic Tolerance project), Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

2008GROUP InnerOuterSpace, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, USA

GROUP The Armory Show, New York, USA

SOLO A Hundred Years, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

SOLO Tavares Strachan, Pierogi 2000, Leipzig, Germany

2007GROUP From the Fat of the Land: Alchemies, Ecologies, Attractions, Grand Arts, Kansas City, USA

GROUP New York – States of Mind, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

GROUP New York States of Mind, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, USA

2006SOLO Tavares Strachan, Aubrey Sayle Primary School, Nassau, Bahamas

SOLO The Difference Between What We Have and What We Want, Pierogi 2000, Brooklyn, USA

SOLO Tavares Strachan, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, USA

SOLO Where We Are Is Always Miles Away, Luggage Store, San Francisco, USA

2005GROUP SAFN Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland

2004GROUP Nothing Compared to This, CAC Museum, Cincinnati, USA

2002GROUP Caribbean Biennial, Museum of Modern Art, Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic

2001GROUP Synergism, Pro Gallery, Nassau, Bahamas

Central Bank, Nassau, Bahamas

Governor General’s Office, New Providence, Bahamas

Inter American Development Bank, Washington, D.C., USA

Museo de Arte Moderno, Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic

Nassau International Airport (Public Sculpture), Nassau, Bahamas

Sir Linden Pindling’s Unity House, Nassau, Bahamas

Tavares Strachan : I Belong Here

Tavares Strachan : I Belong Here

2013

Hardcover, 63 pages.  [more]

TAVARES STRACHAN | ‘You Belong Here’ billboard sized neon floats down the Mississippi River for New Orleans Prospect.3

For the opening of Prospect.3 in New Orleans, Tavares Strachan mounted his 36 meter long glowing, pink neon "You Belong Here" on a barge cruising down the Mississippi River. [more]

TAVARES STRACHAN | LACMA Art + Technology Lab

Tavares Strachan is one of five recipients of the 2014 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Art + Technology grants. [more]