{{Infobox artist | name = Jamal Cyrus | image = Jamal_Cyrus.jpg | birth_date = 1973 | birth_place = Houston, Texas | education = MFA, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Skowhegan, ME BFA, University of Houston; Houston, TX | known_for = Sculpture, drawing, textiles, performance, sound | spouse = Leslie Hewitt }} {{Short description|American conceptual artist (born 1973)}} '''Jamal Cyrus''' (born 1973) is an American conceptual artist who works in a range of media, including drawing, sculpture, textiles, assemblage, installation, performance, and sound.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Harper |first=Daria Simone |date=2022-07-14 |title=In Conversation with Jamal Cyrus |url=https://burnaway.org/magazine/in-conversation-jamal-cyrus/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Burnaway |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus joins permanent collection |url=https://www.rubycity.org/jamal-cyrus |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Ruby City |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Zastudil |first=Nancy |date=2022-04-12 |title=The Pace of Place: Jamal Cyrus at The Modern |url=http://artsandculturetx.com/the-pace-of-place-jamal-cyrus-at-the-modern/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Arts and Culture Texas |language=en-US}}</ref> His artistic and research practices investigates the history, culture, and identity of the United States, questioning conventional narratives and foregrounding Black political movements, social justice concerns, and the experiences and impact of the African diaspora, including Black music.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Glentzer |first=Molly |date=2021-07-15 |title=Houston Artist Jamal Cyrus's Playful, Subversive Vision of Black History |url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/houston-artist-jamal-cyrus-vision-of-black-history/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Texas Monthly |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Valentine |first=Victoria L. |date=2020-02-13 |title=Houston-Based Artist Jamal D. Cyrus on Receiving 2020 David C. Driskell Prize: 'The Symbolism is Extremely Important to Me' |url=https://www.culturetype.com/2020/02/12/houston-based-artist-jamal-d-cyrus-on-receiving-2020-david-c-driskell-prize-the-symbolism-is-extremely-important-to-me/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Culture Type |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=FOCUS: Jamal Cyrus |url=https://www.themodern.org/exhibition/focus-jamal-cyrus |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tipton |first=Cammie |date=April 2022 |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://publicartuhs.org/jamal-cyrus-spotlight/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Public Art: University of Houston System |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Alysia Nicole |date=2022-11-17 |title=The Art of Black Regard |url=http://scalawagmagazine.org/2022/11/jamal-cyrus-black-aesthetic/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Scalawag |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baker |first=Susan J. |date=2022 |title=Soundwaves: Experimental Strategies in Art + Music [Review] |url=https://venuemahs-ojs-baylor.tdl.org/venuemahs/index.php/venuemahs/index |journal=Venue: A Digital Journal of the Midwest Art History Society |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=154–159}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Beckwith |first1=Naomi |title=The freedom principle: experiments in art and music, 1965 to now |last2=Roelstraete |first2=Dieter |date=2015 |publisher=Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in association with The University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31930-8 |location=Chicago (Ill.) London}}</ref>
== Biography == Cyrus was born in Houston, Texas, where he lives and works.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Jamal D. Cyrus |url=https://high.org/driskell-prize/jamal-d-cyrus/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=High Museum of Art |language=en-US}}</ref> He received a BFA from the University of Houston in 2004 before attending the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2005. In 2008, he graduated from the MFA program at the University of Pennsylvania.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2016-02-12 |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://artadia.org/artist/jamal-cyrus/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Artadia}}</ref> Cyrus was an artist-in-residence at Artpace San Antonio in 2010 and a member of the Otabenga Jones and Associates artist collective from 2002 to 2017.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://www.inmangallery.com/artists/34-jamal-cyrus/overview/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Inman Gallery |language=en}}</ref>
Jamal Cyrus has been married to artist Leslie Hewitt since 2021.<ref name=":2" />
== Art Work == thumb|Jamal Cyrus's "Pride Frieze—Jerry White's Record Shop, Central Avenue, Los Angeles" (2005–17) is a work that demonstrates Cyrus's interest in historiography and archival research, sculpture and assemblage, and Black American history, especially music. It is a painstaking reconstruction of a record shop storefront Cyrus saw in a book, featuring a hybrid of real and imagined histories of the Detroit-based "Pride Records" label, with found album covers, altered album covers, and total inventions. This photo was shared in the promotional press packet for the announcement of Jamal Cyrus as the winner of the 6th BMW Art Journey and is one of his most recognizable works. Cyrus's artistic practice is research-based; he makes use of physical and digital archives to investigate American history and historiography through the lens of Black oppression, liberation, and identity.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |url=https://cdn.filepicker.io/api/file/RA6CKtRtqxiYX1qUGeQy? |title=Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning [2002] |publisher=The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles |year=2022 |location=Los Angeles, CA |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Chávez |first=Caitlin Duerler |date=2021-09-15 |title=New Historiography for Black Excellence: Jamal Cyrus "The End of My Beginning" at the Blaffer Art Museum |url=https://www.artstudio.org/new-historiography-for-black-excellence-jamal-cyrus-the-end-of-my-beginning-at-the-blaffer-art-museum/ |access-date=2023-05-23 |website=The Art Studio, Inc. |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cyrus |first=Jamal |title=Jamal Cyrus: the end of my beginning |date=2021 |publisher=Inventory Press |others=Blaffer Art Museum |isbn=978-1-941753-44-6 |editor-last=Bell |editor-first=Eugenia |location=Los Angeles, CA}}</ref> Working in a range of media and materials, his works combine found images, documents, and objects with paper, graphite, papyrus, denim, and other materials, and includes mixed-media installations, assemblages, sculptures, drawings, performances, sound, and video.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Dawkins |first=Chad |date=2023-04-11 |title=Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning |url=https://www.artpapers.org/jamal-cyrus-the-end-of-my-beginning/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Art Papers |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |date=2012-11-29 |title=Racial Redefinition in Progress |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/arts/design/fore-at-studio-museum-in-harlem.html |access-date=2023-05-23 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In referencing material and iconographic aspects of Black history alongside historical events, interpretations, tropes, fabulations, and mythologies, Cyrus's work addresses themes such as counterculture, surveillance, militancy, revolution, and consumerism.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" /><ref>{{Cite book |title=African cosmologies: photography, time and the other |date=2020 |publisher=Schilt Publishing |isbn=978-90-5330-932-2 |editor-last=Sealy |editor-first=Mark |location=Amsterdam, NL}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Pamela M. |title=Think Tank Aesthetics: Midcentury Modernism, the Cold War, and the Neoliberal Present |publisher=MIT Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780262357036 |pages=228 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barrett |first=David |date=March 2019 |title=We are the people. Who are you? |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2224923414 |journal=Art Monthly |issue=424 |pages=22–23 |id={{ProQuest|2224923414}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stabler |first1=Bert |last2=Waits |first2=Mira Rai |date=Summer 2022 |title=Introduction to Visual Arts Research Special Issue, Body Cam: The Visual Regimes of Policing |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/var/article/48/1/1/307322/Introduction-to-Visual-Arts-Research-Special-Issue |journal=Visual Arts Research |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=1–16|doi=10.5406/21518009.48.1.01 |s2cid=248929653 |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
== Exhibitions == Cyrus has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows. His work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial, Art Basel Miami, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Akron Art Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Blaffer Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Asia Society, the New Museum, the Kitchen, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of London Docklands.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10">{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus The End Of My Beginning |url=https://www.theicala.org/en/exhibitions/87-jamal-cyrus-the-end-of-my-beginning |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://www.prospect5.org/artists/jamal-cyrus |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=P.5 Yesterday We Said Tomorrow |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522220640/https://www.prospect5.org/artists/jamal-cyrus |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning |url=https://www.msmuseumart.org/exhibition/jamal-cyrus-the-end-of-my-beginning/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Mississippi Museum of Art |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Slowed and Throwed: Records of the City Through Mutated Lenses |url=https://camh.org/event/slowed-and-throwed/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Contemporary Arts Museum Houston |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2006 |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://whitney.org/www/2006biennial/artists.php?artist=Cyrus_Jamal |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=The Whitney 2006 Biennial: Day for Night}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-10 |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://studiomuseum.org/artist/jamal-cyrus |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=The Studio Museum in Harlem |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus wins BMW's sixth Art Journey award |url=https://www.artbasel.com/news/jamal-cyrus-wins-bmw-s-sixth-art-journey-award |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Art Basel |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning |url=https://blafferartmuseum.org/jamal-cyrus/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Blaffer Art Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>
In addition, as a member of Otabenga Jones and Associates, Cyrus exhibited at the High Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, the California African American Museum, and the Menil Collection, among other venues.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />
== Awards == * John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant (2023)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dansby |first=Andrew |date=2023-04-06 |title=Houston playwright, visual artist awarded Guggenheim Fellowship for their work in the arts |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/article/celeste-bedford-walker-jamal-cyrus-guggenheim-17882402.php |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Houston Chronicle |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hawley |first=Rebecca |date=May 17, 2023 |title=Alumnus Reflects on Guggenheim Fellowship |url=https://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2023/may-2023/05172023-alum-reflects-on-guggenheim-fellowship |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=University of Houston |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Guggenheim Fellowships Recipients Announced, Jamal Cyrus, Kapwani Kiwanga and Pamela Council are Among the Winners |url=https://www.widewalls.ch/news-feed/guggenheim-fellowships-announced |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Widewalls |language=en}}</ref> * David C. Driskell Prize (2020)<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /> * Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2019)<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-09-25 |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/jamal-cyrus |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Joan Mitchell Foundation |language=en}}</ref> * BMW Art Journey (2017-2018)<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://www.bmw-art-journey.com/journeys/jamal-cyrus |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=BMW Art Journey |language=en |archive-date=2023-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522220639/https://www.bmw-art-journey.com/journeys/jamal-cyrus |url-status=dead }}</ref> * Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2009)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brennan |first=Samia |title=Smithsonian Awards Fellowships to 10 Artists to Conduct Research at Museums and Research Facilities |url=https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonian-awards-fellowships-10-artists-conduct-research-museums-and-research-facilities-0 |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}}</ref> * Artadia Houston Award (2006)<ref name=":6" /> * Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2005)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jamal Cyrus |url=https://www.louiscomforttiffanyfoundation.org/2005/jamal-cyrus |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.inmangallery.com/artists/34-jamal-cyrus/overview/ Inman Gallery]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cyrus, Jamal}} Category:Living people Category:1973 births Category:Artists from Houston Category:Conceptual artists Category:University of Houston alumni Category:Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni