Rashad Ali Muhammad is a multidisciplinary artist of the African diaspora based in Maryland. His practice delves into the intersections of culture, ethnicity, spirituality, identity, and nature, celebrating the vastness of the human spirit. His work reinforces notions of authenticity, self-love, and connection, inviting viewers to engage in deeper understanding while addressing stereotypes and misconceptions faced by people of color and the queer community.

Muhammad works across mediums, allowing the subject matter and its demands to shape the form. No matter the medium, he brings a collagist's mindset: merging intention, investigation, and invention, dissecting established references and reassembling them into compelling new visions. His ongoing journey to expand emotional intelligence fuels his exploration of the intricacies of human experience and the expansive intersections that shape our lives.

The clarity and refinement of Muhammad's work reflect his formal education in graphic design and photography. In addition to his studio practice, he works as a creative director and graphic designer, where his contemporary artistic sensibilities and classic design training foster a whimsical and innovative approach. He is also founded his own lifestyle and fashion brand, rooted in the same ethos of identity, culture, and intentional design. Muhammad is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Muhammad was a resident artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA from 2022 to 2025. His work is held in institutional and private collections. He has completed public commissions across the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. He is a 2023 Art and Peacebuilding Fellow with the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, and has served as a mentor in the Arts and Social Justice Fellowship Program at Strathmore with core partner Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. His artwork has received recognition from Contemporary Collage Magazine and the National Collage Society, and has appeared in Forbes, the Washington Post, NPR/WAMU, Academic Medicine, Kolaj Magazine, Create! Magazine, and British GQ.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My multidisciplinary practice sits at the intersection of transformation, healing, and connection. As a queer Black artist in America, I explore expansive themes shaped by lived experience, working across mixed media collage, installation, video, sound, textiles, and design. My work engages ideas of gender nonconformity, culture, spirituality, conservation, and the enduring presence of ancestry, transforming personal narrative into a broader exploration of history, place, and contemporary life.

I approach each body of work through a collagist's mindset, constantly adding, subtracting, obscuring, and revealing. By dismantling and reassembling materials, histories, and inherited ways of seeing, I transform reclaimed objects into luminous forms. Spontaneity and curiosity guide the making. I embrace complexity, balancing vulnerability with sharpness in ways that feel urgent and enduring.

My interest in lineage and genealogy offers a framework to examine identity, resilience, and continuity. Recontextualizing fragments of the past bridges survival and renewal, the spiritual and the physical, turning the ordinary into something extraordinary. Each piece holds space, inviting viewers into layered conversations that are at once intimate and expansive. Each work reflects a deep desire to stay connected to my ancestors and find harmony between the light and shadowed corners of experience. Every piece becomes a small sanctuary, a moment to reframe the world, loosen societal constraints, and step toward liberation.