Tajh Rust’s environmental portrait paintings explore the relationships between black identity and space. He situates the subjects of his paintings in intimate personal and physical settings, establishing a “shared authorship” of their representation through abstraction. Alongside this approach of shared authorship, Rust also employs film and literary references to draw connections between portraiture, language, and modes of representation to delve into the complex constructions of race through geographies, histories and visions for the future.

Rust graduated from The Cooper Union in 2011 with a BFA in Painting and Film. He is currently a 2019 MFA candidate at Yale University School of Art. His work has been exhibited throughout America, most recently in group exhibitions like Familiar Boundaries, Infinite Possibilities, August Wilson Center, Pittsburgh (2018-2019); In Plain Sight/Site, Artspace, New Haven (2018); Winterfly Benefit, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn (2017).