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Raque Ford

American, born 1986

Raque Ford

Living and working in Brooklyn, New York, Raque Ford infuses abstraction with narrative potential, producing layered works that explore how identity is crafted from the remnants of popular culture. Known for her distinctive way with materials, Ford troubles the line between painting and sculpture, using reflective acrylic and transparent Mylar, welded steel chains and laser-cut text. Her high-gloss surfaces are incised with spidery script that quotes from a range of sources: song lyrics, snippets of conversation, excerpts from fiction and diaristic jottings. An accomplished printmaker, she has been a fellow at the renowned Robert Blackburn Workshop, recombining her signature elements into works on paper both intimate and bracing. Deeply attuned to the history of art, Ford channels the tactics of Minimalist masters like Melvin Edwards, Robert Smithson, and Richard Serra toward her own nuanced project. “That’s the interjection of being a woman of color and learning these ways of making sculpture,” she has said. “I want to have their energy, their aggressive scale and material…I’m taking all of that and making it my own.” A solo exhibition of Ford’s work opens at Greene Naftali, New York, New York, in March 2022, and other recent solo shows have been held at 321 Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (2019) and CAPITAL, San Francisco, California (2017).