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Attica Series Desk, 2016. Steel, powder coating, laminated particleboard, distributed by Corcraft (Rental at cost), 60 x 71½ x 29 inches.
The Attica Series Desk is manufactured by prisoners in Attica Correctional Facility. Prisoners seized control of the D-Yard in Attica from September 9th to 13th 1971. Following the inmates’ immediate demands for amnesty, the first in their list of practical proposals was to extend the enforcement of “the New York State minimum wage law to prison industries.” Inmates working in New York State prisons are currently paid $0.10 to $1.14 an hour. Inmates in Attica produce furniture for government offices throughout the state. This component of government administration depends on inmate labor. Rental at cost: Artworks indicated as “Rental at cost” are not sold. Each of these artworks may be rented for 5 years for the total cost of the Corcraft products that constitute it.
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Jim Crow, 2017. Jim Crow rail bender, 36 x 8 x 17 inches.
Jim Crow is a racial slur, derived from the name of the minstrel character played by Thomas D. Rice in the 1830s. A Jim Crow is also a type of manual railroad rail bender. It has been referred to by this name in publications from 1870 to the present. The lease of ex-slave prisoners to private industry immediately following the Civil War is known as the convict lease system. Many of the first convict lease contracts were signed by railroad companies. Plessy v. Ferguson contested an 1890 Louisiana law segregating black railroad passengers. The Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional. This created a precedent for laws mandating racial segregation, later to be known as Jim Crow laws.
Born: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1988
Resides: New York, New York
Education: Wesleyan University (B.A., 2011)
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (October 14–March 11, 2019).
2017
“Birmingham,” Galerie Buchholz, Cologne.
“Rue Ravenstein 32,” Établissement d’en face, Brussels.
2016
“Indirect Benefit,” Kunsthalle Fribourg, Switzerland.
“91020000,” Artists Space, New York.
2014
“Bait, Inc,” Essex Street, New York.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2017
“Being Modern: MoMA in Paris,” Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris.
“Whitney Biennial,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
“Unfinished Conversations: New Work from the Collection,” Museum of Modern Art, New York.
“Louise Lawler: Why Pictures Now,” Museum of Modern Art, New York.
“Picture Industry,” Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
“Mechanisms,” Wattis Institute, San Francisco.
2016
“Okayama Art Summit 2016,” Korakukan Tenjin Public School, Okayama, Japan.
2015
“Greater New York,” MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York.
“Slip of the Tongue,” Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy.
“Overtime: The Art of Work,” Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
2014
“The Contract,” Essex Street, New York.
Selected Bibliography
2017
Pires, Leah. “Kindling,” Art in America (June).
2016
Kitnick, Alex. “Cameron Rowland,” Artforum (March).
2015
Wallace, Ian Edward. “Cameron Rowland,” BOMB (Fall).
Rittenbach, Kari. “Property Relations,” Flash Art (October).
Smith, Roberta. “Pristine Sculptures, Disturbing Evidence,” New York Times (January 29).
2014
Smith, Roberta. “Cameron Rowland: Bait, Inc.,” New York Times (April 24).