Tajh Rust is a contemporary American artist recognised for his portrait paintings of Black figures in interior and outdoor scenes that investigate the relationship between Black identity and space.
Read MoreRust received his BFA from The Cooper Union (2011) and MFA from Yale University School of Art (2019).
Often rendered in bold, saturated colours, Tajh Rust's paintings explore the themes of liminal space, the passing of time, and the historical invisibility of Black bodies.
Among Rust's most well-known works is the ongoing portrait series 'Subject', which shows young Black figures cropped at their busts in square canvases. The subjects turn away from the viewer, their faces completely or partially obscured from view. Appearing against monochromatic backgrounds that echo their skin tones, the figures prompt questions about visibility and voyeurism, complicating the relationship between the viewer, subject, and the painted object.
Liminal space and time feature regularly in Rust's practice, such as with the works included in his solo exhibition Passages at New York's Fridman Gallery in 2019. In one painting titled Sunrise, Rust portrays an interior with saturated blue walls and a yellow floor, occupied by a woman holding a child by the window and a man watching them from across the room. Like the 'Subject' paintings, all figures have their backs to the viewer, while the ornate detailing of the environment suggests the passing of time.
The installation Passages (2021), presented at The Shed in New York, is a pair of freestanding glass panels placed in parallel to each other. One features rows of stencilled human forms—black, brown, and white—against a brownish background, and the other is transparent except for text appropriated from Caribbean philosopher Édouard Glissant's writing about absence.
In 2019, Rust was one of the 19 artists to participate in Kehinde Wiley's inaugural Black Rock Senegal residency in Dakar, works from which were presented in Rust's solo exhibition Eve at Sakhile&Me, Frankfurt that same year. In addition to new 'Subject' paintings, Eve also included Tabasky (2019), a horizontal canvas centred around the gathering of six women in conversation in an interior. Reflective of the exhibition title, the yellowish colours of the sky in the work suggest a particular time of the day—at dusk or evening.
Works inspired by Rust's Black Rock Senegal residency also include the three paintings Preserved from the Flood I—III (2022), in which he captures the subtleties in the sky and water at different times of the day. The Flood paintings were featured in Rust's solo exhibition Somewhere in Between at Matthew Brown Los Angeles in 2022.
Tajh Rust's work has been shown in both solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include Somewhere in Between, Matthew Brown Los Angeles (2022); Where We Meet, Matthew Brown Los Angeles (2020); Eve, Sakhile&Me, Frankfurt (2019); Passages, Fridman Gallery, New York (2019).
Group exhibitions include and I will wear you in my heart of heart, FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2021); Vernacular Interior, Hales Gallery, New York (2019); Familiar Boundaries. Infinite Possibilities, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburg (2018); Winterfly Benefit, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, New York (2017).
Rust's website can be found here and his Instagram can be found here.
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2022
