This year, Associate Professor of Studio Art Dawit L. Petros is one of over 30 artists and collectives that will be hosted by the Toronto Biennial of Art.
"A twelve-week event every two years, the Biennial commissions artists to create new works for a city-wide exhibition in dialogue with Toronto’s diverse local contexts. Year-round public and learning programs bridge Biennials and invite intergenerational audiences to explore the ideas that inspire our events. Building upon past editions and offering new ways of seeing and listening, each Biennial connects people to spark meaningful dialogues and imagine new futures."
Dawit L. Petros is a visual artist and educator who examines the intertwined and multiple narratives of African and European colonialism and modernity. He draws from his study of history to highlight displaced or forgotten histories. Petros conducts extensive research and travel to inform his production across materials and mediums, including photography, sculpture, screen prints, video, sound, performance and sound. A sensitivity to political and historical engagement is fused with aesthetic language that pays keen attention to color and abstraction, reflecting Petros’ long-standing preoccupation with traditions of minimalist sculpture and conceptual artmaking. This enables Petros to engage in a metaphorical dialogue with contemporary issues of displacement and place-making that challenge traditional forms of narrative representation associated with documentary imaging.
Petros completed the Whitney Independent Study Program, an MFA in Visual Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University; a BFA in Photography from Concordia University; and a BA in History from the University of Saskatchewan. Recent national and international venues that have exhibited his work include Liverpool Biennial, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort; Wereld Museum, Rotterdam; Tate Modern, London; KØS Museum for Art in Public Space, Nørregade, Køge; Ozangé Spanish Biennial of African Photography, Malaga; Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo; Huis Marseille Museum of Photography, Amsterdam; The Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC; The National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC; and the Bamako Biennale in Mali.
Petros has been recognized with numerous accolades, such as the Scotiabank Photography Prize, the Terra Foundation for American Art Research Fellow, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Paul De Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award in Art Photography, an Art Matters Fellowship, and Artist Residencies at The Studio Museum in Harlem, The McColl Center for Visual Art, and Addis Ababa Photo Fest.
Dawit L. Petros is a co-founder with Heba Y. Amin of Black Athena Collective. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Studio Art at Dartmouth College. Petros is represented by Tiwani Contemporary in London, UK, and Bradley Ertaskiran in Montreal, Canada.