Umar Rashid's Cosmic Journey in PER CAPITA

Umar Rashid's universe is immersive. And that universe expands and contracts with each show, narratives reimagine time and space in a way that is rare for a contemporary artist. For his newest show, PER CAPITA, Rashid (formerly known as Frohawk Two Feathers) creates "an immersive experience... (to) form space and time as a cosmic journey that reimagines colonial Los Angeles." And within this, Rashid is changing the way we look at how history is written, how time effects a place and who dominates the spaces we live. 



PER CAPITA, on view at Transformative Arts in LA and created from Rashid's 2021 COLA Fellowship, features sculptural works and paintings, highlighted by an inspired Babylonian Ishtar Gate work in deep Dodger blue. with iconography that turns lions into pitbulls, asps into rattlesnakes. Rashid always does a deep dive into history when he takes on a suhject, and his dichotomies of what is and what isn't in history is always a fascinating experience. As the gallery notes, Rashid's strength is how he "uses these contradictions to stretch visual narratives," and PER CAPITA is the artist at his absolute finest once again. 



PER CAPITA is on view at transformative arts in Los Angeles through June 30, 2021.