Cardinal Virtue

Solo Exhibition by Faisal Abdu’Allah

Exhibition opening 25th January 2024

Wednesday – Saturday | 3pm – 7pm

The art of Abdu’Allah and his contemporaries in the early 1980s can be evaluated in a manner that fills an important void within available scholarship on the subject of contemporary art in relation to Afro-British culture. What began as an artistic gesture in the 1980s more fully materialized in the early twenty-first century as a complete conceptual approach that questioned issues of race and identity in relation to issues of cultural diversity and multiculturalism. Abdu’Allah’s work broke away from the British artistic establishment and the rules of institutional representation, particularly insofar as he began selecting his subjects from émigré utopia, Afro-British social consciousness, Muslim identity, and working-class life. He also integrated other views of London, portraying it as a city of dislocated communities that were powerless in the existing world of art.

Excerpt from ‘The Art of Dislocation’ by Professor Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz.

Dr Faisal Abdu’Allah (b. 1969) in London is a contemporary artist best known for his large-scale works that explore the intersectionality of identity, Abdu’Allah has been exhibited on five continents and has participated in the Torino Biennale, the 55th Venice Biennale, and Aqua Art Miami. Abdu’Allah has collaborated with Sir David Adjaye, Virgil Abloh, choreographer Frank Gatson Jr. and singer Brandy. Abdu’Allah is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including The Joan Mitchell, Mayor of London Award, NEA, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. His works are in the collections of Tate Britain, the V&A Museum, MMoCA and the Chazen Museum. Abdu’Allah is the Chazen Family Distinguished Chair in Art and Associate Dean for the Arts at UW-Madison. Abdu’Allah stars in the current Netflix documentary The Fade and is represented by Magnolia Editions and Autograph.