In his first solo museum exhibition, Los Angeles-based conceptual artist Awol Erizku (b. 1988, Gondar, Ethiopia) focuses on pioneering American Muslim human rights activist El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, more commonly known as Malcolm X, as a subject of personal inspiration and complex cultural significance. Awol Erizku: X is composed of new and recent works, including photographs, sculptures, works on paper, film, archival material, and a decades-spanning soundtrack. Together, they collectively convey the artist’s view of Malcolm X as a metaphorical prism of faith, masculinity, and transformation, and a key figure connecting the United States and Africa.

Building on the exhibition’s first iteration at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, the Los Angeles presentation includes the addition of Erizku’s epic black Nefertiti disco ball. Erizku posits his singular Afrocentric aesthetic, something he refers to as “Afro-esotericism,” as a means to link ancient mythology, diasporic tradition, and contemporary culture and to explore the expanded contours of Black spirituality, self-definition, and image making.

Awol Erizku: X is organized by the SCAD Museum of Art and curated by Daniel S. Palmer, Chief Curator, SCAD. The CAAM presentation is organized by Cameron Shaw, Executive Director, CAAM.