Dawolu Jabari Anderson (b. 1973) is a Houston-based artist who creates large-scale paintings on paper that combine stinging word play with the style and format of vintage movie posters and advertisements in a critique of how African-American history has been oversimplified and commodified throughout modern and contemporary culture.
He will create a new series of paintings for the exhibition at Arthouse.

The Diabolical Uncle Ben
2005
Paint marker, make up, acrylic on paper
68 x 48 inches

Negro Rule
2005
Paint marker, make up, acrylic on paper
68 x 48 inches

The Cheating Chief Wahoo
2005
Paint marker, make up, acrylic on paper
68 x 48 inches

The Smok’n Ethiopian
2005
Paint marker, make up, acrylic on paper
68 x 48 inches

ARTHOUSE TEXAS PRIZE FINALIST
DAWOLU JABARI ANDERSON
CURRICULUM VITAE

Born in Houston, TX, in 1973; lives and works in Houston.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007
Negro Week, Ingalls & Associates, Miami, FL
2006
* Dawolu Jabari Anderson: Black Film, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
* The Birth of a Nation – Yo! Bumrush the Show: Works by Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Art League Houston, Houston, TX

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008
* Otabenga Jones: Lessons from Below, Menil Collection, Houston, TX (upcoming)
2007
* System Error: War is a Force that Gives us Meaning, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy
* Working it Out: Studio Program Residents, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
2006
* Whitney Biennial 2006: Day For Night, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2004
* Symmetrical Patterns of Def (With Otabenga Jones & Associates Collective), Clementine Gallery, New York, NY
* Who Goliards? Artists at the Turn of the Century, University Museum at Texas Southern University, Houston, TX
2002
* Soul Sonic LustraSilk, Houston Community College Northeast, Houston, TX
* Sixth Annual African-American Advisory Association, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1997
* Artist Board Chooses, DiverseWorks, Houston, TX
1996
* Breaking into the Mainstream, Irving Arts Center, Irving, TX

CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE
1996
* Preventions, Project Row Houses and Community Arts Collective, Houston, TX

RESIDENCIES
2007
* Lawndale Art Center Studio Program, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX

2006
* Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
BIOGRAPHY

Mixed-media painter Dawolu Jabari Anderson was born in 1973 in Houston, Texas. He participated in numerous prestigious exhibitions while still enrolled as a student at Texas Southern University in Houston. Along with his individual success, Anderson is a founding member of the Otabenga Jones & Associates collective, which was formed by Anderson and the artists Jamal Cyrus, Kenya Evans, and Robert Pruitt after meeting at Texas Southern University. In 2006 the collective was invited to participate in the Whitney Biennial, displaying both their collective and individual works, and all have since experienced steady success.

Despite his recent appearance on the international art scene, Anderson’s practice and aesthetic remain deeply rooted in Texas, and particularly Houston, as reflected in his work with Project Row Houses, an initiative to revitalize Houston’s Third Ward via public art and African-American cultural awareness programs. In 1996, Anderson curated Preventions for Project Row Houses, whose 22 shotgun-style structures have hosted a dynamic installation art program for over a decade, preserving the neighborhood’s architectural history while serving the community.

Anderson’s cultural identity as an African American, and the experience of African Americans within the larger society, is central to his work, which often consists of darkly humorous takes on the discussion and role of African-American history within mass media.

His recent exhibition Negro Week—a reference to a precursor to the contemporary “Black History Month”—toys with the fleeting, almost cursory treatment of African-American history in American public education. In one example from the exhibition, the figure of a young girl (reminiscent of 1950s advertising illustration) is juxtaposed with a bluesman, a baseball player, and a man in traditional African tribal dress. The words “CELEBRATE! IT’S NEGRO WEEK!” appear above and below, while the entire work has been treated via a process of Anderson’s own devising to create an aged look commonly found in American graphic design relating to slavery. This approach is characteristic of much of Anderson’s work, which widely references history, pop culture, and commercial design, with ironic, often comical, but always thought-provoking combinations.