RIVERS by Tim Rollins and K.O.S. to Open 2/1 at SCAD Museum of Art

Lehmann Maupin has announced RIVERS, an exhibition of collaborative paintings by the Bronx, New York-based artists Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival) at the SCAD Museum of Art opening February 1, 2014. Founded by Rollins more than 30 years ago, the K.O.S. group has created paintings inspired by classic works of literature and music that can be found in the permanent collections of more than 95 museums worldwide.

In RIVERS, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. will exhibit paintings inspired by historic and literary narratives of the South including the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.; Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; and W.E.B. Du Bois' Darkwater, among others.

Additionally, a new work was made with junior high school students at the Esther F. Garrison School of Visual and Performing Arts in Savannah, Georgia, based on Duke Ellington's ballet score for The River. From the Bronx River to the Savannah River, Rollins and K.O.S. showcase the transcendence of these themes and their impact on the cultural fabric of the United States and beyond.

Tim Rollins (b. 1955, Pittsfield, Maine) studied fine art at the University of Maine and earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. After graduate studies in art education and philosophy at New York University, Rollins began teaching art for special education middle school students in a South Bronx public school. In 1984, he launched the Art and Knowledge Workshop in the Bronx together with a group of at-risk students who called themselves K.O.S. (Kids of Survival). In 1997, the documentary, Kids of Survival: The Art and Life of Tim Rollins & K.O.S. was widely received at the London Film Festival, Cinema de Real, France and the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Since its inception, the group has exhibited extensively worldwide, include presentations at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2013); Hayward Gallery, London (2012); Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2012); Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy (2011); Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. (2011); and the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006). A retrospective of the group's 20-year career opened at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in 2009 and travelled to the Frye Museum, Seattle and the ICA Philadelphia later that year. A fully illustrated hardcover catalogue, co-published by the Tang Museum and MIT Press, accompanied the exhibition. The group's work is represented in nearly 100 prestigious public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Tate Modern, London; Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington D.C. and Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, among others.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. are based in New York City.

For more information on Tim Rollins and K.O.S., visit lehmannmaupin.com.

Image: Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Asleep on the Raft (after Mark Twain)," indigo watercolor, matte acrylic, book pages on canvas, 2013-14. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong.