HARTFORD, CT.- New York-based multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome, whose thought-provoking work draws on material ranging from rap music, black youth, and pop culture to medieval heraldry, the Renaissance and early modern architecture, has his first solo museum exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum. The exhibition features two video works and a large selection of Newsome’s collages and wall sculptures that take the forms of royal coats-of-arms created for rap royalty and constructed of contemporary status symbols including “bling” jewelry and iconic hip-hop fashion. Incorporating video, performance, sculpture, and collage, Newsome’s work combines elements of high and low art in an effort to level the social and political playing field. Part of the Wadsworth’s ongoing MATRIX contemporary art series, the exhibition is on view from February 3 through May 1, 2011. Newsome also curated a sm