The Collection

Torkwase Dyson is an interdisciplinary artist whose abstract paintings, drawings, and sculptures explore the intersections of ecology, infrastructure, architecture, and environmental justice. Describing herself as a painter working across mediums, Dyson builds compositions of expressive mark-making and geometric abstraction that probe how space is perceived, negotiated, and transformed—particularly by Black and brown bodies. Her work is grounded in her theory of Black Compositional Thought, which considers how spatial networks of water, paths, and architecture are composed and navigated as strategies of Black liberation.

Dyson studied sociology, social work, and fine arts at Tougaloo College before earning a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (1999) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art (2003). She has presented solo exhibitions at the Graham Foundation (Chicago, 2018), The Drawing Center (New York, 2018), New Orleans Museum of Art (2020), Serpentine Galleries (London, 2021), Hall Art Foundation (Germany, 2021), Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (St. Louis, 2023), and ‘T’ Space (Rhinebeck, 2023). Her work has also been featured in major international biennials, including the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2021), the 12th Liverpool Biennial (2023), the 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2023), and the 81st Whitney Biennial (2024). In 2025, Dyson debuted Akua, her first major sound installation, at Brooklyn Bridge Park with the Public Art Fund, and designed the conceptual framework for Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, the Costume Institute’s Spring 2025 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C.), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Hammer Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Long Museum (Shanghai), and others worldwide.