Derek Fordjour’s layered paintings focus on cultural rituals and social gatherings. Fordjour builds his textured grounds with materials such as cardboard and newspaper, then renders athletes, performers, and crowds of revelers on top. These exercises in color, texture, and materiality alternately celebrate Black life in the United States and lament inequalities of the past and present. Fordjour received his MFA from Hunter College and has exhibited in New York, London, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Turin, among other cities. His work belongs in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Fordjour has complemented his paintings with sculptures and elaborate installations.