Antonio Darden
b. Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1983Lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia
"In 1978, Antonio Darden's West Indian mother entered the United States by way of New York. She relinquished her Caribbean/East Indian heritage and adopted a pseudonym. Darden's mother met his African-American father at a funeral, fell in love, and relocated to North Carolina. His mother adopted a drawl, learned to cook Soul Food, and in 1990 persuaded her family to relocate farther south. Eventually, the family settled in Atlanta. Spawn is a socially aware interdisciplinary artist raised on a concoction of Sloppy Joe and Memphis rap."
Darden’s art spans disciplines and ideologies, heavily influenced by pop culture, varying political realities, and the Black American humorist tradition. His sculptural, video, and performance works are inflected with satire and sincerity, often brought them together in sharp, absurdist experiential installations.
He has been nominated for the United States Artists Fellowship (2027), received the Joseph Hartog Fund for Independent Study Grant from Bard College (2026), and was named Artist Nominator for Ruth Arts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2026). In 2022 he received the Juror's Choice award at Gathered V, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, and in 2015 was a recipient of the Art on the Beltline Grant, Atlanta.
Darden has had solo exhibitions at Neue Welt (Nashville, TN, USA); Temporary Studios (Atlanta, GA, USA); Day and Night Projects (Atlanta, GA, USA); The End Project Space (Atlanta, GA, USA); Woodruff Park (Atlanta, GA, USA). He was included in group shows in Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenville (Greenville, SC, USA); Whitespace Gallery (Atlanta, GA,USA); Bard Exhibition Center/UBS Gallery (Red Hook, NY, USA); Westobou Gallery (Augusta, GA, USA), among others.
Darden's work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Artnet, Burnaway, New American Paintings, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ARTSATL, and others.
Current
Fade, group show, Studio Museum Harlem, NY (May 1 - September 6, 2026)Speaking in Tongues, group show, Lyndon House Arts Center, Athens, GA (June 18 - August 29, 2026)
Curriculum Vitae
Angel Hator, 2023
Video, LED TV, lighting
Dimensions variable (1920 x 1080)
Dimensions variable (1920 x 1080)
Installation view, WAKE, a solo presentation at Independent 2026
BOJ Jr., 2026
Plexiglass, graphite on paper
Dimensions variable
Untitled (No Longer Bound), 2022Latex on wall, digital archive print, plexiglass
Dimensions variable
Dimensions variable
Untitled (Reclining Figure), 2025
Untitled (Perform 2), 2026
Both in FADE at the Studio Museum of Harlem through 6 August 2026.
Untitled (Perform 2), 2026
Both in FADE at the Studio Museum of Harlem through 6 August 2026.
It reads both 'BRUISED' and 'BRUISER' (A hologram), 2025
Four-wall projectsion/Six-channel video, assymetrical sound, digital archive print on panel
00:06:17
Four-wall projectsion/Six-channel video, assymetrical sound, digital archive print on panel
00:06:17
Friday Night Lights, 2024
Plywood, plexiglass, metal screen, digital archive print
65 x 23 x 16 in