Patrick Quarm

Biography

Patrick Quarm (b. 1988, Ghana) lives and works between Takoradi and the United States. His paintings explore cultural authenticity and hybridity through portraits rendered directly onto layered, cut, and spliced African print fabrics. By setting the realism of the figure against the geometric logic of the textiles, Quarm underscores identity as fluid, shifting with place, history, and community. Subjects ranging from self-portraits to family groups appear to surface from or dissolve into patterned grounds, creating an active dialogue between person and pattern. 

The fabrics function as both material and memory, carrying stories of family, trade, and exchange. Wax prints themselves embody a layered history shaped by colonial-era global commerce: industrial imitations of Indonesian batik produced in Europe circulated through West African markets and became entwined with local meanings and style. Quarm’s collage-like process of revealing, covering, and reconfiguring mirrors the way people assemble a sense of self across cultures. Rather than fixing a single reading, the works hold difference and connection at once, proposing hybridity as an everyday experience. 

 

Quarm holds a BFA in Painting from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and an MFA from Texas Tech University. He participated in the Red Bull Artist Residency in Detroit in 2019 and was an NXTHVN Fellow in 2021–2022. 

Recent institutional exhibitions include Neo-Custodians: Woven Narratives of Heritage, Cultural Memory, and Belonging, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE (2024); Narrative Threads: Fiber Art Today, Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, TX (2023), Present 23, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (2023); and Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit, Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit, MI (2023). His work is held in public collections including the Syracuse University Museum, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, and the Kemper Museum. 

Works
  • Patrick Quarm, ECHOES OF THEN AND NOW, 2024
    ECHOES OF THEN AND NOW, 2024
  • Patrick Quarm, IN BETWEEN MEMORIES AND DREAMS, 2024
    IN BETWEEN MEMORIES AND DREAMS, 2024
  • Patrick Quarm, IN BLOOMS EMBRACE, 2024
    IN BLOOMS EMBRACE, 2024
  • Patrick Quarm, ONE MIND, TWO FRAMES, 2024
    ONE MIND, TWO FRAMES, 2024
  • Patrick Quarm, THINKER, 2024
    THINKER, 2024
  • Patrick Quarm, TORN YET WHOLE, 2024
    TORN YET WHOLE, 2024
Exhibitions
Art Fairs
Bibliography

PATRICK QUARM

Born in 1988 in in Sekondi, GH
Currently lives and works between Ghana and the United States

 

EDUCATION

2018          MFA Painting and Drawing, Texas Tech University, Lubbock,                                 TX
2012          BFA Painting, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and

                    Technology, Kumasi, GH

 

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS 

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI

Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse, NY
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

 

SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024          Phantoms in Familiar Terrains, albertz benda, New York, NY   

                   SILHOUETTES: Tracing Memory, Artpace, San Antonio, TX

 

2020          Salvaged Imperial, albertz benda, New York, NY

 

2019           Patrick Quarm: Paradox: Surfaces of Self, N’Namdi

                              Contemporary, Miami, FL
                    Conrad Egyir & Patrick Quarm: Anansesem,

                              albertz benda, New York

2018            Parallel Identities: Patterns of Place, Satellite Gallery,

                               Lubbock, TX

 

2017             There is Only One Side, CASP Studio 4, Lubbock, TX.

                               Curated by Victoria Marie Bee

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024              Space We Exist, Curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah, Heather

                                Guidio Fine Art, Greenwich, CT
                       Spring International Artist in Residence, Curated by

                       Larry Ossei-Mensah, Artpace, San Antonio, TX
                       Neo-Custodianss, Woven Narratives of Heritage, Cultural

                                 Memory, and Belonging, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE

 

2023               Narrative Threads, Fiber Art Today, Moody Center for the                                      Arts – Rice University, Houston, TX

                         Rites of Passage, Curated by Peju Oshin, Gagosian,

                                   London, UK
                          Present 23, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
                          Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit, Cranbrook Art

                                    Museum, Detroit, MI
                          Filling in the Pieces in Black, Saatchi Gallery, Brussels, DE

 

2022                 Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century, Kalamazoo                                       Institute of Art, Kalamazoo, MI

                           Undercurrents, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY
                           Family Ties, David Klein Gallery, Detroit, Michigan

 

2021                  ONTOLOGY, Ross and Kramer Gallery, New York, NY
                            Unraveled. Restructured. Revealed: Where                                                    Contemporary Art and Diverse Perspectives Intersect,                                          Trout Museum oF Art, Appleton, WI

                            THIS IS AMERICA, Kunstraum Potsdam, Berlin, DE

 

2020                   Fragmented Bodies, albertz benda, New York, NY
                            Translating Valence, Urban Institute of Contemporary                                             Arts, Grand Rapids, MI

                             More is More, Contemporary Art Museum Plainview,

                                       Plainview, TX
                             BLACK VOICES/ BLACK MICROCOSM, CFHILL,

                                       Stockholm, SE
                             Insight, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, UK

 

2019                    SNOW DAY, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY.
                              Invitational Exhibition, Contemporary Art Museum

                                        Plainview, Plainview, TX


2018                    HOMEMADE, Curated by McArthur Binion, Library                                                  Street Art Collective, Detroit, MI

                              PLACE, Curated by Asia Hamilton, Norwest Gallery,

                                        Detroit, MI
                              Oso Bay Biennial XX: Realism Redux, Texas A&M                                                    University, Corpus Christi, TX

                              Rising Eyes of Texas, Curated by Rainey Knudson,                                                   Rockport Center for the Arts, Rockport, TX

                              West Meets West: Illuminated Figures, Caviel Museum                                           of African America History, Lubbock, TX.


2016                    Annual MFA Show, Landmark Gallery, Lubbock, TX


2015                     Annual MFA Show, Landmark Gallery, Lubbock, TX

2013                     Art, Trade &Technology Fair, K.N.U.S.T Museum,

                               Kumasi, GH

 

2012                     End of Year, K.N.U.S.T Museum, Kumasi, GH

 

2011                      Illumination, K.N.U.S.T Museum, Kumasi, GH
                               Art, Trade &Technology Fair, K.N.U.S.T Museum,

                               Kumasi, GH


AWARDS & RESIDENCIES

2019                     Red Bull House of Art Artist in Residence, Detroit, MI


2018                     Thomas ‘Curry’ Roberts- Regent Endowment Art

                               Scholarship, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX


2017                     Alan and Lee Ann White Regents Endowment Visual                                            & Performing Arts, Texas Tech University,                                                        Lubbock, TX

                              Graduate Fellowship Award, Texas Tech University,

                                        Lubbock, TX


2016                     Graduate Fellowship Award, Texas Tech University,

                                        Lubbock, TX
                               Helen Devitt Jones Talent Based Scholarship, Texas                                              Tech University, Lubbock, TX


2015                     Graduate Fellowship Award, Texas Tech University,

                                         Lubbock, TX
                               Helen Devitt Jones Talent Based Scholarship, Texas                                               Tech University, Lubbock, TX


2006                    Visual Art Student Award, Prempeh College, Kumasi,                                               GH