BIOGRAPHY
Dario Mohr is a New York City based interdisciplinary artist, curator and non profit leader. Born in 1988, Mohr received a BFA from Buffalo State College (2010), an MFA from The City College of New York (2019) and an Advanced Certificate in Art Education (2021). He creates reverent installations in the form of altars as well as other sculptural objects of an occult nature. Some solo shows include the Jacob Javits Center (during Nest Summit’s Climate Week as well as the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit), Lewis Latimer House Museum and Equity Gallery. Additionally he has presented public sculpture at venues including Wave Hill as their inaugural Glyndor Terrace Public Sculpture Artist, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the 2024 Harlem Sculpture Garden exhibit in St Nicholas Park, Old Stone House, and Tafaria Castle’s Arboretum in Kenya. These works and many others have been activated by Mohr’s Happy Planting Day seed paper greeting card workshops and planting performance that brings new life into the world in memory of ancestors and in keeping with the ancestor veneration tradition of indigenous cultures inspired by his west african heritage, and ubiquitously practiced by indigenous communities globally.
He has had several residencies including The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) SHIFT Residency, Materials For The Arts (MFTA), Arquetopia Residency in Peru, School of Visual Arts (SVA), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), among others. Additionally he had fellowships with Bronx Museum Artists in the Marketplace (AIM), ApexArt in Bogota, Colombia, and is a two time Artbridge Fellow, among others. Mohr has been a recipient of several grants including NYSCA, NEA and various council grants including LMCC, Queens, Brooklyn and Bronx.
He is also the founder and Director of AnkhLave Arts Alliance, Inc. which is a non-profit for the recognition and representation of people of color, particularly indigenous communities around the world.
CV
GRANTS / AWARDS:
2025 NYSCA Grant
2025 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Art Grant
2025 Brooklyn Arts Council Grant
2023 Bronx Council on the Arts New Work Grant
2022 Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Grant
2021 New York Foundation For The Arts (NYFA) City Artist Corps Grant
2021 Queens Art Fund New Work Grant, Queens, NY
2021 National Endowment For The Arts (NEA) Grant
2021 Cultural Solidarity Fund Grant
2020 Integrity: Arts & Culture Association Grant
2020 Can’d Aid Grant (as Curator)
2020 Queens Art Fund Grant (as Curator) Queens, NY
2017-19 Therese Rolston Connor Merit Based Tuition Scholarship
2018 Therese Rolston Connor Study Abroad Scholarship
2016 Front Line Hero, New York Non-Profit Media, New York, NY
2015 Award for Excellence, NYSACRA Conference, New York, NY
FELLOWSHIPS:
2024 apexart Fellowship, Bogota, Columbia
2024 Wave Hill Sunroom Project Sculpture Program
2023 Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship Program
2023 ArtBridge Fellowship, Harlem, NY
2021 ArtBridge Bridging The Divide Fellowship, Bronx, NY
2021 Global Leadership Human Impact Institute: Impact Artist Fellowship, New York, NY
2019-20 Jamaica Center For Arts and Learning ArtWorks Inc Fellowship, Queens, NY
RESIDENCIES
2027 All that We Are Art Residency, Australia (forthcoming)
2026 Palette People Art Residency, Kerala, India (forthcoming)
2026 Zero Foot Hills, Durham, CT (Forthcoming)
2026 Modzi Arts Residency, Lusaka, Zambia (Forthcoming)
2026 Zoma Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Forthcoming)
2025 Darb 1718 Residency, Cairo, Egypt (Forthcoming)
2025 Ely Center of Contemporary Art (ECOCA), New Haven, CT
2025 Inema Arts Center, Kigali, Rwanda
2025 Tafaria Castle & Center for the Arts Residency, Nyahururu, Kenya
2025 John Bauer Pottery Studio Residency, Cape Town, South Africa
2024 Art Crawl Harlem, Governors Island, NY
2023 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Governor’s Island, NY
2023 Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) SHIFT Residency, New York, NY
2023 Tafaria Castle & Center for the Arts Residency, Nyahururu, Kenya
2023 NYC Audubon Residency, Governor’s Island, NY
2022 Jacob Javits Center Climate Week, New York, NY
2022 BronxArtSpace Art Residency, Governor’s Island, NY
2021 Flux Factory Art Residency, Queens, NY and Governor’s Island, NY
2021 Materials For The Arts (MFTA) Art Residency, Queens, NY
2020 School of Visual Arts (SVA) Art Residency, New York, NY
2020 West Harlem Art Fund – Art Muze Residency, Governor’s Island, NY
2019 Trestle Gallery Residency, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Arquetopia Residency, Cusco, Peru
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2026 Black Archetypes, TBD (Forthcoming)
2025 Windows, Tafaria Castle & Center for the Arts, Nyeri, Kenya
2024 The Hero’s Journey Polyptych, Equity Gallery Courtyard, New York, NY
2023 Fowl Play, NYC Audubon, Governor’s Island, NY
2022 Nest Summit Climate Week, Jacob Javits Center Atrium, New York, NY
2022 Temple of Acacia, Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Blood is Thicker Than the Water That Separated U.S., Lewis Latimer House, Queens, NY
2021 Don’t Let it Slip Through Your Fingers, Flux Factory, Queens, NY
2020 Archetypes: A Visual Soundtrack, Materials For the Art (MFTA), Queens, NY
2019 Sanctuary, MFA Thesis Show, The City College of New York, CUNY, New York, NY
2017 AfroFuture, Shangri La Eiffel Tower Palace, Paris, France
2017 Chakranicity, La Comtesse, Paris, France
2016 Anniversary of an Angel, Lutheran Church of Gustavus Adolphus, New York, NY
2016 Faces, The Carlton Arms Hotel, New York, NY
2016 Icons, Project Reach, New York, NY
2015 Musicians, The Shrine, New York, NY
2015 Chakras, Casa Frela Gallery, New York, NY
2014 New York Fashion Week, Harlem Library, New York, NY
2013 African Diaspora Achieving Excellence Ceremony, HSBC, Buffalo, NY
2012 Angels Vs. Demons, ZGM Fine Arts, Buffalo, NY
2012 Individuals, Starlight Studios, Buffalo, NY
2012 Buddha Nature, The Arts Enrichment Center, Buffalo NY
2012 Classical Universal, Artspace Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2011 Portraits, Sp@ce 224, Buffalo, NY
2011 The Show, B West Studios, Buffalo NY
2008 Solo Show, Buffalo State EH Butler Library, Buffalo, NY
STATEMENT
My practice explores ancestry, Indigenous and contemporary mysticism, and the socio-political realities of marginalized communities, particularly those of African descent. I reflect on the reclamation of lineages disrupted by colonialism and slavery, creating spaces that merge art with reverence and ancestral memory.
Working inter-disciplinarily across painting, sculpture, assemblage, installation, digital media, and video, I center creative reuse as both material strategy and cultural philosophy. My work ranges from monumental public sculptures and immersive shrine installations to intimate altars and sculptural effigies, each offering portals for reflection and remembrance.
Central to my public practice is the Happy Planting Day project, an interactive workshop and planting performance using African Daisy seed paper. Participants inscribe messages to their ancestors, which are planted to bring new life into the world in their honor. This transnational initiative bridges the U.S. and Africa, extending endangered traditions of Indigenous Ancestor Veneration into contemporary forms.
Workshops and installations have taken place across Africa and New York City, with public monuments erected in Ghana and Brooklyn (2022), Kenya and the Bronx (2023–24), and South Africa and Manhattan (2025) with Uganda
