Set Seen: Derek Fordjour, PROCESSIONAL, 2024
For Frieze Los Angeles 2024, Art Production Fund will be presenting the on-site public program ‘Set Seen’, featuring works that speak to constructed environments and how they relate to our perception of reality and understanding of space. These projects are in dialogue with the rich history of set design in Los Angeles and specifically the role that set designers played in camouflaging the former Douglas Aircraft Company factory at Santa Monica Airport. This program is free to the public, and select projects will remain on view through April 7, 2024.
Derek Fordjour, PROCESSIONAL, 2024
Site-specific banner installation
Derek Fordjour, No. 03, 2022 Acrylic, charcoal, and oil pastel on newspaper mounted on canvas 30 x 24 inches, Courtesy of The Artist, Photo by Daniel Greer
Derek Fordjour, No. 44, 2019 Acrylic, charcoal, foil and oil pastel on newspaper mounted on canvas 30 x 24 inches, courtesy of the Artist, Photo by Daniel Greer
Derek Fordjour, No. 69, 2019 Acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, oil pastel and foil on newspaper mounted on canvas 30 x 24 inches, Courtesy of the Artist, Photo by Daniel Greer
Derek Fordjour, No. 72, 2017 Oil pastel, charcoal, acrylic and newspaper on canvas 30 x 24 inches, Courtesy of the Artist
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Derek Fordjour's PROCESSIONAL will be installed on thirty-three standard vinyl light pole banners lining Airport Ave and Donald Douglas Loop. The works were originally realized using acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, and oil pastel on newspaper and canvas, highlighting Fordjour's unique process of layering, tearing, painting, and repainting. Fordjour began the Player Series in 2013, drawing inspiration from wanted posters, athletic trading cards, mugshots, and yearbook photos. Fordjour offers dozens of serialized portraits as a critique of institutional systems such as prisons, auctions, sports industries and education. Notions of capitalism, history, aspiration and autonomy converge in the sequential repetition of banners aloft, signaling the triumph of commercial enterprise.
ARTIST BIO
Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee to parents of Ghanaian heritage. In 2018, he was awarded commissions for the Whitney Museum of American Art Billboard Project and the MTA Arts & Design program. Recently, he was the inaugural artist for the Building Art Series on the façade of MOCA Grand Avenue in Los Angeles. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. He has also been featured in several publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Juxtapoz, Vanity Fair and Forbes Magazine. His work is held in the private and public collections of The Studio Museum of Harlem, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, SFMOMA, Brooklyn Museum, The Whitney Museum and LACMA. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting from Hunter College. Fordjour is the founder of Contemporary Arts Memphis.
