Art Basel Miami Beach

M+B is pleased to present an installation of new works by Aaron Fowler in the Positions Sector at Art Basel Miami Beach. The presentation is a prologue to Fowler's solo exhibition, Into Existence, opening at the Seattle Art Museum on December 13. Fowler is the 2019 recipient of the museum's Gwendolyn Knight | Jacob Lawrence Prize, which is awarded biannually to an early career Black artist. This is the first solo fair presentation of Fowler's work since his project at the New Museum and participation in the Hammer Museum's Made in LA Biennial, both in 2018.

The works on view are at once self-portraiture and cultural celebration. They are a mirror. A memory. A premonition. Fowler’s use of found objects, from album covers to costume wigs, is an assemblage reflective of a man seeking to assemble himself. To rearrange. Reimagine. Redefine. In one self-portrait the artist dons a hat that reads, “Jesus.” Into Existenceis the journey of an artist who understands that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Out of the abundance of cultural pride and reclamation, Fowler speaks, and assembles himself into existence. 

Aaron Fowler (b. 1988, St. Louis, MO) received his BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and MFA from The Yale School of Art. As the 2019 recipient of the Seattle Art Museum's Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, his solo exhibition, Into Existence, opens there in December. Other recent projects include Bigger Than Me at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and Tough Love at Beeler Gallery, Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, OH. In addition to the artist’s participation in the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. 2018, Fowler has also been in the recent group shows A Constellation, curated by Amanda Hunt, at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Anecdotal Evidence: Remembering Jacob Lawrenceat the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; Reclamation! Pan-African Works from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection at the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA; and High Anxiety: New Acquisitions at Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL. Recent press includes The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, and Art Review’s “Future Greats” feature. The artist was a 2015 recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant and an artist-in-residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2014. Aaron Fowler lives and works in Los Angeles.