BIO
Atisha Fordyce is a multidisciplinary artist of Guyanese decent, currently residing in Philadelphia, PA. Her work serves as a vessel for personal and collective memories. The work often portrays floating figures, symbolizing the in-between; the many places she has lived and her yearning for a sense of belonging. This conceptual space reflects what many immigrants navigate. Through her practice, she investigates the concept of safe spaces, with a focus on how they serve as a form of resistance to displacement.
Atisha holds a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art and an MFA from the Mason Gross School of Art. Her work has been shown in The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, the New York Academy of Art, BSB Gallery in Trenton, among other institutions and private collections throughout the United States and Guyana.
CV
Born in Georgetown, Guyana
Resides and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Education
2020 Master of Fine Arts
Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts, New
Brunswick, NJ
2016 Bachelor of Fine Arts
Cooper Union School of Art, New York, NY
Artist Residencies
2025 Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX
Selected Exhibitions
2024 (Re)FOCUS: Then & Now, The Galleries at Moore College of
Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA
2022 Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli
Art Museum,” Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, NJ
2020 AXA Art Prize Exhibition - Virtual, New York Academy of Art,
New York City, NY
2019 Split Ends, Two Person Show Featuring Artists, Atisha Fordyce
and Quinci Baker, BSB Gallery, Trenton, NJ
2018 Just Honey, MFA First Year Exhibition, Mason Gross Galleries,
New Brunswick, NJ
2018 Foreground 19, 41 Cooper Gallery, Cooper Union School of
Art, New York, NY
2017 Background 19, 41 Cooper Gallery, Cooper Union School of
Art, New York, NY
2016 Tale of Folks, 41 Cooper Gallery, Cooper Union School of Art,
New York, NY
2012 Afro-Futurism: Imagining Tomorrow, MOCADA Museum,
Brooklyn, NY
Awards
2016 The Pietro and Alfrieda Montana Prize for Excellence in
Drawing
2015-2016 Yip Harburg Scholarship toward full tuition to Cooper
Union School of Art
2014-2015 Clifford Warren Scholarship toward full tuition to Cooper
Union School of Art
2013-2014 Marvin A. Schwam Memorial Scholarship toward full
tuition to Cooper Union School of Art
2009-2012 Gold Medal Holder for the Regional NAACP Act-So
Competition for Excellence in Drawing, Painting &
Sculpture, Manhattan Branch
Selected Publications
2024 ArtBlog Newsletter: (re)FOCUS, Then and Now, Big
Differences, and The Future By Katie Dillon Low, January 31,
2024
2024 Broad Street Review: (Re)FOCUS: Then and Now honors a
historic 1974 Philly feminist arts festival By Emily Schilling, Feb
07, 2024
2021 Merion-Mercy: Art Teachers Share Their Talents, December 09,
2021
2019 Town Topics: Split Ends” at BSB Gallery in Trenton, by Town
Topics Newspaper, May 1, 2019
2019 The Ensemble: (Two Channel Trailer) by Miranda Friedman,
November, 2019