Keith Obadike

Keith Obadike is an artist and composer who works collaboratively with writer Mendi Obadike. They have exhibited and performed at The New Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Their projects include a series of large-scale public sound artworks: Blues Speaker (for James Baldwin) at The New School (commissioned by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics with Harlem Stage), Free/Phase at the Chicago Cultural Center and Rebuild Foundation, and Compass Song (commissioned by Times Square Arts). Their honors include a Rockefeller New Media Arts Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award Biennial Award.

Prior to joining the faculty at Cornell, Obadike taught at William Paterson University. He has served as a visiting artist at Princeton University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He earned a B.A. in Visual Art from North Carolina Central University and an M.F.A. in Sound Design from Yale University.

Related News

• An Endless Conversation: The Art and Practice of Mendi + Keith Obadike
• Spring 2024 Mellon Urban Justice Lab Announced
• EarShot CoLABoratory Showcase Concert at New School Tishman Auditorium
• Counterpublic in St. Louis Pushes the Public-Art Envelope
• Multi-College Scholars Think Deeply About Cities

Classes (Selected)

• ART 4001 Thesis I

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

• New Music USA Creator Development Fund (2022)
• Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award (2015)
• Rockefeller New Media Arts Fellowship (2004)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

• Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art, Albright Knox Gallery, co-curated by Tina Rivers Ryan and Paul Vanouse (2021)
• Anyanwu and Book of Light, Carnegie Mellon University (2019)
• Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, curated by Christiane Paul (2018)
• I Was Raised on The Internet, MCA Chicago, curated by Omar Kholeif (2018)

Publications (Selected)

• "Studies into Darkness: The Perils and Promise of Freedom of Speech", ed. Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, contributor (2022)
• Obadike, Mendi and Keith, "Big House / Disclosure", 1913 Press (2014)
• Obadike, Mendi and Keith, "Four Electric Ghosts", 1913 Press (2014)
• Crosstalk [album], Bridge Records, (2008).