b. 1989; Philadelphia, PA; lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA
Education
2018 MFA, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2010 BFA, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
Solo Exhibitions
2025 People who die bad dont stay in the ground, TILT Institute of Contemporary Image, Philadelphia, PA
2022grace comes violently, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
New Works, McClain Gallery, Houston, TX
2020 Feeling the Spirit in The Dark, The Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Ceremonies, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York (online)
2019 Rude / Emergencies, Ltd Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Imagining Flesh Through Shadows, Alexander Brest Museum & Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
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The Language Must Not Sweat, Locust Projects, Miami, FL
- notes towards becoming a spill, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 SPACE IS THE PLACE: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2025Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Transcendence: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy, University of Texas, Austin, TX
2023 A Two-Way Mirror. Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA
Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX
2022 Invisible Thread, The Baker Museum, Naples, FL
When I State that I am an Anarchist, PLATO Ostrava, Czech Republic
2021
This Is the Day, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
notes towards becoming a spill, Performa 2021 Biennial, New York, NY
A Beautiful America, Museum Dhondt—Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium
2020 Imagine Otherwise, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, OH
Enunciated Life, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2018 The Way We Live, Aperture Summer Open, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
Ultra Vivid Dreaming, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR
Twenty Ears, MFA Thesis Show, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2017 Say It Loud: Art, History, Rebellion, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI
2016 Labor Relations, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland
Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Public Art Commissions
2026Hold, Arts Landing, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh, PA
Selected Awards & Grants
2026 Humanities in Place Grant, Mellon Foundation
2025 VMFA Aaron Siskind Award for Photography, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
2022The Pittsburgh Foundation Exposure Artist Fellowship
2020 Art Matters Foundation Grant
The Leslie Lohman Artist Fellowship
2019 The Joan Mitchel Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grants
2018 The Advancing Black Art Grant, The Pittsburgh Foundation & The Heinz Endowments
Selected Collections
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
University of Texas at Austin, TX
Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Poland
Teaching Experience
MFA Core Faculty, Carnegie Mellon University School of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Visiting Critic, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
Residencies
2025 Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA
2023Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program Awardee, New York, NY
2020 Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh, PA
2016 Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Public Programs
2025 Statements on Style, MoMA, New York, NY
2021Aperture Conversations: Antwaun Sargent, Shikeith, and Naima Green on Black Queer Utopia, Aperture, New York, NY (online)
2019 Race, Sex, & Cinema: The World of Marlon Riggs, BAM, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Studio Teens Lecture and Workshop, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2017 An Evening with Shikeith, MoMA, New York, NY
Art, Power, Protest: Northwestern Conference on Human Rights, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
#Blackmendream: Screening and Discussion, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2016 Photography and the Politics of Representation, Vera List Center and Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
Women Take the Reel Film Festival, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
#Blackmendream, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA
2015 Brothas Gonna Work It Out, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
My People Film Series, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
Selected Bibliography
2023
Tobias, James. “Black and Queer, Music on Screen: Distanced Derivations.” liquid blackness 7, no. 1. April 1, 2023.
Fateman, Johanna. “Behind Abstract Forms.” 4Columns. March 24, 2023.
2022
Conner, Allison Noelle. “Opacity and the Spill: The Photographs of Clifford Prince King, Shikeith, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya.” Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. November 2022.
Goodly, Nicholas. “Four Poems by Nicholas Goodly.” BOMB Magazine. September 30, 2022.
Huxtable, Isaac. “Lost in a Moment: Shikeith’s Wordless Images of Gay Sensuality.” Elephant. June 19, 2022.
Knoblauch, Loring. “Shikeith, grace comes violently @ Yossi Milo.” Collector Daily. June 16, 2022.
Heinrich, Will. “What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now.” The New York Times. June 2, 2022.
Hopkins, Zoë. “Critics’ Picks: Shikeith, grace comes violently.” Artforum. May 2022.
Shikeith and Ashon T. Crawley. Shikeith: Notes towards Becoming a Spill. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2022.
Reid, Tiana. “Shikeith’s Black Uncanny.” Aperture. Spring 2022.
2021
“New Talent: Shikeith.” Art in America. May/June 2021.
O’Grady, Megan. “How Friendship Helps Us Transcend Ourselves.” The New York Times Style Magazine. April 12, 2021.
Rich, Katey. “Introducing the Inaugural Silver List, Featuring 47 Exciting Contemporary Photographers Whose Work You Just Have to See.” Vanity Fair. February 11, 2021.
Allen, Dan. “Queer Artists of Color Dominate 2021’s Must-See LGBTQ Art Shows.” NBC News. February 7, 2021.
Harrison, Mia Imani. “Shikeith Exorcises the Histories That Haunt Black Queer Men.” Frieze. January 21, 2021.
2020
Sargent, Antwaun. “The Queer Black Artists Building Worlds of Desire.” Aperture. December 8, 2020.
2019
Mizota, Sharon. “Black Masculinity and an Artist’s Exploration of Desire, Intimacy and Queerness.” Los Angeles Times. October 16, 2019.
Tranen, Joshua Gutterman. “An Intimate Film Traces Black Masculinity from Boyhood.” Hyperallergic. May 31, 2019.
Smith, T.K. “Notes Towards Becoming a Spill: Shikeith at Atlanta Contemporary.” Burnaway. April 18, 2019.
2018
Sargent, Antwaun. “Where ‘Block Party’ Has a Score of Meanings.” The New York Times. August 16, 2018.