Tariqa Waters

Born in Virginia, Tariqa Waters is a contemporary artist known for her whimsical larger-than-life fabrications, paintings, self-portraitures and installations. Waters works in varied media- canvas, wood, plastic, ceramics, paint, and photography. Her technicolor characterizations of multigenerational commercial references reclaim an authentic and sincere aesthetic steeped in effortless regality and proudly celebrated traditions. 

Waters’ work has been featured in numerous institutions and galleries including the Seattle Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, Hedreen Gallery, and Pivot Art + Culture. Waters’ work has been featured in issues of Rolling Stone France and Madame Figaro magazines. In 2016, her critically acclaimed solo exhibition, 100% Kanekalon: The Untold Story of the Marginalized Matriarch, exhibited at the Northwest African American Museum. In 2020 Waters’ much anticipated exhibition, Yellow No.5 debuted at the Bellevue Arts Museum. 

As the founding owner of Martyr Sauce Pop Art Museum and Gallery, located in the historic arts district of Pioneer Square, Waters is dedicated to cultivating artistic space and community. Waters has served in various arts organizations and institutions as well as co- founding Re:Definition gallery at the Paramount Theater in 2015, an on- going partnership with the Seattle Theatre Group redefining historic cultural space. In addition to Waters’ being a featured keynote speaker, Martyr Sauce became a Cultural Partner of the Seattle Art Fair the summer 2017. 

Waters received the 2016 Conductive-Garboil-Grant and in 2018, she received the Artist-Trust- Fellowship Award. In 2022 became an Artist Trust finalist for the Arts Innovator Award. Two consecutive years in a row, Waters received the Seattle Art Museum’s 2020 Kayla Skinner Special Recognition Award and the 2021 Gary Glant Special Recognition Award. In 2020 Tariqa was the recipient of The Neddy at Cornish Open Medium Award.