Dawit L. Petros

Dawit L. Petros (Eritrean, b. 1972)

Untitled (Overlapping and intertwined territories that fall from view I), Durfo, Eritrea

2024

Archival pigment print

20 x 25 inch image on 24 x 30 inch paper

Signed edition of 30

Dawit L. Petros' work is informed by studies of global modernisms, theories of diaspora, and postcolonial studies. Throughout the past decade, he has focused on a critical re-reading of the entanglements between colonialism and modernity. These concerns derive from lived experiences: born in Eritrea, Petros spent formative years in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kenya before settling in central Canada and now Chicago. The overlapping cultures, voices, and tenets of this constellation has produced a dispersed consciousness, global and transnational in stance and outlook.

Petros completed the Whitney Independent Study Program, an MFA in visual art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, a BFA in photography from Concordia University, and a BA in history from the University of Saskatchewan. A recipient of awards including a Terra Foundation Research Fellowship, the Paul De Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Art Photography and a Fulbright Fellowship, Petros’s multidisciplinary work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, London; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City; and the Bamako Biennale, Mali, among other venues. Petros was previously Associate Professor in the Department of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently Associate Professor of Studio Art at Dartmouth College.