Bio

Education:
Bowling Green State University – MFA 
Columbus College of Art and Design – BFA

Co-Founder of Radiant City Arts, a for-profit collective focused on bringing quality programming to communities and institutions for the enhancement of lives through the creative process. As an individual artist, Yusuf utilizes performance, installation, and painting as the main vehicles for his practice. Realizing the potential for art to be recognized in our everyday lives, Lateef looks to the common experience as something transformative.

 

Artist Statement

My work is my need to reveal and communicate the true value of my existence and others around me through forms of making. I feel compelled as an artist to do something that leaves a legacy or mark. One of the first major marks in my career was when I decided to change my name. I call it a mark because it left an impression. Making is at the core of my work and it acts as a way of documenting my thoughts outside of myself. At the same time, making to me is more than the material. I have an ever-evolving practice, so my attachment to materials is based on the need. Because of this, I use the date of the completion of the work to create continuity. I recently decided to date my work as signature. The date becomes a part of the composition. In some ways, it is what establishes meaning. By doing this, I observed that I was focusing on my movements and gestures that represented certain marks. The moment and act of making came to the forefront. I began categorizing my movements as marks. The natural, performative quality of art making became more apparent. It is a recognition of circumstances and movements. It’s the opportunity to evaluate language surrounding movements that somehow reveal meaning. By working in this manner, it allows for the expansion of work space. Ideas come with their own parameters. The challenge is to document and contextualise the work in a way that communicates my ability to recognize the potential for beauty in everyday places and acts.