Raque Ford: The only one willing to do the hard part

March 12, 2026 – January 2027
Intervention at the Fridericianum, Kassel

The artist Raque Ford, born in Columbia, Maryland, in 1986 and living in New York, combines in her artistic practice free forms with strong color contrasts and written elements. Alongside plastic she uses a variety of materials creating an aesthetic that hovers between abstraction and simple visual codes. Layered up like collages her works combine sculpture, painting, and graphics and reference the cutouts of the late Henri Matisse, Minimalism, and Pop Art. At the Fridericianum, the artist is creating designs for both public elevators.

The only one willing to do the hard part is part of Ford’s on-going exploration of identity and how it is formed out of elements from pop culture, consumerism, digital communication, and the longings associated with them. Upon entering the elevators visitors step into unexpected spatial situations with photographic wallpaper depicting a discount clothing store. Standardized flower graphics and script are layered over the surrounding image. Ford fashions this script in characteristic handwritten letters striking a both provocative and sentimental tone: Everyone wants to be the desired but am I the only one willing to do the hard part and do the wanting and I don’t like to joke, joking is a sin.

With Ford’s site-specific intervention, the Fridericianum picks up on works already installed in the Kunsthalle beyond the designated exhibition spaces, such as those of Kerstin Brätsch or Karl Holmqvist.

Ford has featured in solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Gartenhaus in Vienna (2025), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2024), and The Print Center in Philadelphia (2023). She has also participated in group exhibitions in various institutions, such as MoMA PS1 in New York (2023 and 2021), White Columns in New York (2023), the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (2022), and the SculptureCenter in New York (2016).