Frohawk Two Feathers was born as Umar Rashid, Chicago, Illinois in the United States of America. In 2000, he graduated from the Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He currently resides and works in Los Angeles, California.
Through drawing, painting, and sculpture, Two Feathers amalgamates fact and fiction to create an imagined 18th century union of France in England (aptly titled the ‘Frenglish’ Empire), portrayed through various renderings of fictional subjects, including militiamen, freed slaves, lords, dukes and tribesmen.
He produces a visual narrative of historic sagas such as colonial uprisings between the two fictitious superpowers, Frengland and Fenoscandia. Through his inventive retelling of colonial history, Two Feathers explores themes of Afrofuturism and its relation to past.
Through his practice, he destabilises the entrenched hierarchies of 19th century ethnographic portraiture. Producing drawings, paintings, sculptures and installation pieces, Two Feathers works with acrylic paint, graphite, tea and coffee to create an antiquated impression by ageing the surfaces of his paintings and sculptural works.
Two Feathers’ solo exhibitions include On errythang (On everything) for MATRIX 170 (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, USA: 2014-2015); Heartbreaking and shit, but that’s the globe. The Battle of Manhattan at Morgan Lehman Gallery (New York, USA: 2014); And Those Figures Through the Leaves. And That Light Through the Smoke, Part Two of “The Americas” at Nevada Museum of Art in Reno (Nevada, USA: 2013), We Buy Gold, We Buy Everything, We Sell Souls at Museum Of Contemporary Art (Denver, Colorado, USA: 2012) and The Edge Of The Earth Isn’t Far From Here at Stevenson Gallery (Cape Town, South Africa: 2011).
Participation in group shows include Based on a True Story: Duke Riley and Frohawk Two Feathers at Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati, USA: 2015), Nothing to Say at Guererro Gallery (San Francisco, California, USA: 2011), Stranger Than Fiction at Santa Barbara Museum of Art (California, USA: 2010) and Else at Tilton Gallery (New York, USA: 2010). His work has also been featured in The New York Times, Art in America and Flaunt Magazine. In 2011, he published a book called The Edge of the Earth Isn’t Far From Here.