Art Basel Unlimited

Lehmann Maupin and Galleria Continua are pleased to present A Brief History of Known by Nari Ward at Art Basel Unlimited.

A Brief History of Known is part of Nari Ward’s ongoing Breathing Panel series, which highlights both the physical and metaphorical properties of copper. With consideration to the element’s resilience and the many cultures that use copper for medicinal purposes, Ward seeks a healing power in this series. A Brief History of Known is both formally interesting and conceptually rigorous. When making the work, the artist applies a patina to the copper panels to create areas of darkness and discoloration, which he then fixes with clear coat lacquer. This freezes the oxidation caused by the patina, capturing a specific moment in time—stabilizing and permanently encapsulating the artist’s presence in the panel’s creation.

In a career spanning over three decades, artist Nari Ward (b. 1963, St. Andrew, Jamaica; lives and works in New York, NY) has gained recognition for an interdisciplinary and multimedia practice that engages historical and contemporary discourse around race, migration, democracy, identity, and community. Ward is best known for his wall and installation-based sculptural works created primarily from materials found and collected throughout Harlem, his longtime neighborhood in New York. These objects imbue his work with a sense of intimacy, reflecting the shared experience of community. Combining materials to re-contextualize their original meanings, Ward’s assemblages probe a range of spiritual and conceptual issues through literal and metaphorical juxtaposition.

Materially specific but conceptually ambiguous, Ward’s multimedia and performance works unfold into many possible interpretations—as materials and movements accumulate, so too do signifiers. Each found object—including baseball bats, strollers, shoelaces, cash registers, bottles, and shopping carts—contains a multiplicity of meanings and histories that speak to both collective experience and individual memory. The intentional synthesis of such objects, combined with the more traditional disciplines of painting, sculpture, and performance, allows for varied interpretations, inviting viewers to project their own associations and transcend the specific context of any given work. At the same time, Ward’s art reflects on the complexities of contemporary society, transforming overlooked material through artmaking to foreground forgotten histories or marginalized communities.