About the Object

In this cast concrete sculpture of a goat, ribbons of copper are skewered through the rebar that covers its back. The goat stands tall on an industrial washing machine drum. In these sculptures, Ward plays with the acronym G.O.A.T., Greatest of All Time, a superlative often used to describe musicians and athletes.

Additional Information

This piece was one of 20 G.O.A.T.s included in the exhibition Nari Ward: G.O.A.T, again at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York, in 2017. For the installation at Socrates this piece was placed directly on the ground, without a pedestal. Ward reimagined the piece in 2021 for the Foundation, mounting the sculpture on top of a washing machine drum. Tired, G.O.A.T., 2017 (VF2022.01.01) was also included in this exhibition.

Ward was born in Jamaica and immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 12; the family settled in Brooklyn, New York. Ward has lived in the New York City area ever since, earning his BA at Hunter College and his MFA at Brooklyn College. He became a U.S. citizen in 2011. Ward received the Vilcek Prize in Fine Arts in 2017 for his body of found-object assemblage artwork that invites both public discourse and intimate dialogue on topics including race, poverty, and Black and Caribbean diasporic identities.