Jamal Cyrus (born 1973) is an American
conceptual artist who works in a range of media, including drawing, sculpture, textiles,
assemblage,
installation,
performance, and
sound.[1][2][3] His artistic and research practices investigates the history, culture, and identity of the United States, questioning conventional narratives and foregrounding Black political movements, social justice concerns, and the experiences and impact of the
African diaspora, including Black music.[1][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
Jamal Cyrus's "Pride Frieze—Jerry White’s Record Shop, Central Avenue, Los Angeles" (2005-17) is a work that demonstrates Cyrus's interest in historiography and archival research, sculpture and assemblage, and Black American history, especially music. It is a painstaking reconstruction of a record shop storefront Cyrus saw in a book, featuring a hybrid of real and imagined histories of the Detroit-based "Pride Records" label, with found album covers, altered album covers, and total inventions. This photo was shared in the promotional press packet for the announcement of Jamal Cyrus as the winner of the 6th BMW Art Journey and is one of his most recognizable works.
Cyrus's artistic practice is research-based; he makes use of physical and digital
archives to investigate American history and
historiography through the lens of Black oppression, liberation, and identity.[14][15][16] Working in a range of media and materials, his works combine found images, documents, and objects with paper, graphite, papyrus, denim, and other materials, and includes
mixed-media installations, assemblages, sculptures, drawings, performances, sound, and video.[14][17][18] In referencing material and iconographic aspects of Black history alongside historical events, interpretations,
tropes,
fabulations, and mythologies, Cyrus's work addresses themes such as counterculture, surveillance, militancy, revolution, and consumerism.[14][17][19][20][21][22][23]
^Beckwith, Naomi; Roelstraete, Dieter (2015). The freedom principle: experiments in art and music, 1965 to now. Chicago (Ill.) London: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in association with The University of Chicago Press.
ISBN978-0-226-31930-8.
^Cyrus, Jamal (2021). Bell, Eugenia (ed.). Jamal Cyrus: the end of my beginning. Blaffer Art Museum. Los Angeles, CA: Inventory Press.
ISBN978-1-941753-44-6.