Nari Ward facts for kids

Nari Ward (born in 1963 in St. Andrew, Jamaica) is an artist from Jamaica and the United States. He lives and works in New York City. Nari Ward is known for making art from everyday objects he finds around his neighborhood. His art often explores ideas about what people buy, how poverty affects people, and race. He has won important awards like the Vilcek Prize in Fine Arts in 2017 and the Rome Prize in 2012.

Early Life and Learning

Nari Ward was born in 1963 in St. Andrew, Jamaica. When he was 12 years old, he moved to the United States. Even as a child, he was very good at drawing. His parents didn't know any artists, so they first encouraged him to study advertising. But Nari soon changed his mind and decided to focus on his own art.

He went to Hunter College, part of the CUNY system, and earned his first degree in 1991. He then got his master's degree from Brooklyn College, also part of CUNY, in 1992. In 2011, Nari Ward became a citizen of the United States.

Artistic Journey

Nari Ward's art has been shown in many different places, both in solo shows and group exhibitions. His work has been featured in big art events like the Whitney Biennial in New York and Documenta XI in Germany. You can also find his art in famous museums such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Some of his special solo exhibitions include Episodes at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and Sun Splashed at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. In 2011, he had a large show called Nari Ward: Sub Mirage Lignum at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. This exhibition filled a whole floor of the museum and looked at how places can change, especially between work and fun.

His artwork Homeland Sweet Homeland (2012) is part of the permanent collection at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. This museum also held a big show of his work called Nari Ward: Sun Splashed in 2015. This exhibition explored ideas about being a citizen, moving to new places, and identity through his unique objects and installations. The show later traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. In 2022, the Baltimore Museum of Art bought his sculpture called Peacekeeper.

Amazing Art Installations

Nari Ward is famous for his large art installations. These are artworks that often fill a whole room or space. He uses everyday items to create powerful messages.

Amazing Grace (1993)

Amazing Grace was first shown in an old firehouse in Harlem, New York. Later, it was part of an exhibition at the New Museum. This artwork looks like a landscape made from discarded baby strollers and fire hoses. Nari Ward collected these items from the neighborhood around the firehouse.

The exhibition is set up like a church or a special building. You walk around the baby strollers on a carpet made of fire hoses. The artwork makes you think about the social costs of ignoring problems in communities. It also explores ideas about race and city life.

As you experience the art, you hear the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson singing "Amazing Grace" on repeat. The baby strollers are arranged in the shape of a ship's hull. This connects to the song's history, as it was written by John Newton, a former slave trader. He wrote the hymn after a powerful experience at sea. Nari Ward felt the song's message of forgiveness and change fit well with his artwork.

Hunger Cradle (1996)

In 1996, Nari Ward created Hunger Cradle for an exhibition in another abandoned firehouse in Harlem. This installation filled a floor with a complex web of ropes, tubes, wires, and yarn. Hanging within this web were objects found at the site, like a crib, books, piano keys, and various tools. When this work was shown again in 2019, it was described as a "busy spider-web" filled with "trapped relics" from the old firehouse.

Mango Tourist (2011)

For Mango Tourist, Nari Ward gathered thousands of old electrical parts. He combined them with other materials and ideas that remind him of economic development projects. This artwork features giant "snowmen" made from yellow foam, old electrical parts, and mango seeds.

These figures represent the idea of America as a magical place that Nari Ward imagined when he was a child growing up in Jamaica. The snowmen are a playful way to challenge expectations, especially since Nari Ward is from the Caribbean. He likes to surprise people who might expect different things from an artist with his background.

Breathing Directions (2015)

In 2015, Nari Ward showed his installation Breathing Directions. This artwork is full of references to African-American history. The colorful patterns on the floor are inspired by 19th-century African-American quilts. The holes cut into the wall sculptures are like the breathing holes found in the floorboards of churches that helped enslaved people escape to freedom.

These holes allowed escaped slaves to breathe while they were hidden beneath the floors. Nari Ward visited the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, which was part of the Underground Railroad. He was fascinated by how these holes, shaped like the Kongo cosmogram prayer symbol, preserved a hidden history in plain sight. He wanted to use this pattern to connect to modern times. The artwork also reminds people of the phrase "I can't breathe," which was said by Eric Garner in 2014.

Sun Splashed (2015-2017)

This was a traveling exhibition that showed many of Nari Ward's works. It included The Happy Smilers: Duty Free Shopping (1996), which was like a time capsule showing stories of racial politics before social media. The exhibition also featured Mango Tourist and We The People.

Another artwork in this show was Radha LiquorsouL. For this piece, Nari Ward used an old neon liquor store sign. He turned it upside down so only the letters spelling "soul" lit up. He then decorated it with fake flowers, shoe tips, and shoelaces. This artwork makes you think about alcohol in different ways, both as something harmful and as something spiritual.

Nari Ward: G.O.A.T., again (2017)

In 2017, Nari Ward created an exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York. It featured concrete sculptures of goats. These goats have metal bars, called rebar, sticking out of their backs. While this might seem strange, Nari Ward explains that it reminds him of buildings in Jamaica and other countries. In those places, rebar often sticks out of roofs, showing that more building can be added later. For Nari Ward, these sticking-out bars represent "optimistic possibilities for the next generation."

Nari Ward: We The People (2019)

In 2019, a traveling exhibition called Nari Ward: We The People opened at The New Museum. It included famous works like Amazing Grace (1993) and Hunger Cradle (1996), along with smaller pieces. This exhibition consistently explored the Black experience in America, focusing on real lives and physical experiences. Reviewers noted how the artwork connected strongly to the BLM movement, which also focuses on the physical realities of life, especially after events like the death of George Floyd.

Awards and Recognition

Nari Ward has received many important awards for his art. These include the Willard L. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998) and a grant from the Pollock Krasner Foundation (1996). He also received support from The National Endowment for the Arts (1994) and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1992).

He has been part of the Artist-in-Residence program at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Nari Ward has also created art for the United Nations and the World Health Organization. In 2019, The Carnegie Corporation of New York honored him with a Great Immigrant Award.