Tomashi Jackson
"Mary Lyons, Yudy Ventura & the Co-op Women (Red Line/Red Scare)", 2019
Acrylic, oil, and image transfer on paper and muslin with digital prints on vinyl on paper and muslin
76 3/4 x 75 1/4 inches
Brown II
An Exhibition by Tomashi Jackson
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
Tomashi Jackson combines a practice based in painting and printmaking with archival research in the histories of law, urbanism, and social justice. Her work plumbs the intersections between the formal languages of visual art (color, composition, layering) and the analogous political languages driving the histories of segregation, voting rights, education, and housing in the United States. By excavating and activating these shared motifs of art and policy, her work brings the full power of both traditions to bear on historical engagement and critical action. In this exhibition, commissioned for the Radcliffe Institute, Jackson explores the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Her research and work centers specifically on the 1955 case, referred to as Brown II, that followed the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision. Brown II addresses the implementation of the 1954 decision, asserting that the effort to desegregate schools in the United States was to be undertaken with “all deliberate speed.”
Jackson’s work was featured in the Whitney Biennial 2019 and has appeared in many other important recent exhibitions, including at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Los Angeles. She has a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art; an MS in art, culture, and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture + Planning; and an MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University. She has taught and lectured widely throughout the Northeast and lives and works in New York and Cambridge.
Exhibition organized by Jennifer L. Roberts, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Faculty Director of the Arts, Radcliffe Institute, and Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
This exhibition opens on April 14, 2020, and runs through June 27, 2020.
It will be on view in the Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery of Byerly Hall at 8 Garden Street, Radcliffe Yard, Monday through Saturday, from noon to 5 p.m.
Free and open to the public.