In October Rowland’s Replacement (2025) was removed from the facade of Palais de Tokyo in Paris on the grounds that it ‘could be considered illegal’, after the work – a red, green and black Martinican flag – was displayed in lieu of the French flag as part of the group exhibition Echo Delay Reverb: American Art, Francophone Thought. The removal of Martinique’s flag – installed to highlight France’s dependence on its former colony and present-day ‘overseas department’ – escalated Rowland’s subtle gambit into a full-blown topic of discussion. For over a decade, the conceptual artist and 2019 MacArthur Fellow has been making such site-specific interventions with readymades – accompanied by long and deeply researched metadata labels – subverting the assumption that artists help whitewash their exhibiting institutions’ and host cities’ images. Rowland also appeared this year in the artist-curated exhibition Arthur Jafa – Less Is Morbid at MoMA, New York, and contributed to Saidiya Hartman’s stage performance Minor Music at the End of the World at the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam.
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Artist - Conceptual artist subverting artworld assumptions
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