Steffani Jemison

American artist

Steffani Jemison

Born| 1981 (age 41-42)

Berkeley, California, U.S.

Education| Columbia University (BA)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA)
Occupation(s)| Artist, educator
Awards| Herb Alpert Award (2021)
Guggenheim Fellowship (2020)
Creative Capital Award (2020)
Radcliffe Fellowship (2016)
Website| www.steffanijemison.com

Steffani Jemison (born 1981) is an American artist, writer, and educator.[1][2] Her videos and multimedia projects explore the relationship between Black embodiment, sound cultures, and vernacular practices to modernism and conceptual art. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and other U.S. and international venues.[3][4][5][6][7] She is based in Brooklyn, New York and is represented by Greene Naftali, New York and Annet Gelink, Amsterdam.[7][8][9]

## Early life and education[edit]

Jemison was born in 1981 in Berkeley, California,[10] and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a child, she attended summer camp at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Her favorite class was one in which she was asked to write a story about one of the works in the collection.[11]

She holds a BA degree in comparative literature from Columbia University (2003); and an MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009).[12][13]

## Teaching career[edit]

Jemison is an assistant professor in media in the department of art and design at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.[14] She previously taught at the Parsons School of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago.[6][15]

## Works[edit]

Major works include Prime (2016), Promise Machine (2015),[16][17] Projections (2014), Stroke (2013) You Completes Me (2013), Personal (2014), Escaped Lunatic (2010–2011), Maniac Chase (2008–2009), and Same Time. Jemison's 2014 video Personal was included in the 2014 show "Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond" at the Brooklyn Museum.[18]

Promise Machine combined a reading group with performance. Participants formed a "Utopia Club," based on the Utopia Neighborhood Club, and including artists, activists, writers, and book club members. Jemison created a musical performance incorporating text generated in the reading group.[19] She was partially inspired by the shared reading experiences that a church creates. Promise Machine attempts to create a similar experience in a secular space.[20] Prime references texts from key historical and cultural moments to explore the relationship between privacy and revolution.[21]

You Completes Me is a performance installation that a live reading of excerpts from urban fiction while the 1927 film The Scar of Shame plays, putting historical moments in conversation with contemporary ones.[12]

Jemison's films Manic Chase and Escaped Lunatic are both inspired by early twentieth-century films.[22] They focus on the actors' movements; she is particularly interested in the political implications of movement.[22]

Along with Heather Hart and Jina Valentine, she curated "The Intuitionists," a viewing program in which artists illustrated concepts from a paragraph in Colson Whitehead's novel, The Intuitionist. This installation was part of a viewing program at the Drawing Center.[23]

As an agent in the Hillman Photography Initiative at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Jemison collaborated with Liz Deschenes, Laura Wexler, and Dan Leers to create a platform demonstrating the relationship between photography and Pittsburgh. Their work emphasized the physical conditions that make photography possible.[11]

### Future Plan and Program (2010–2011)[edit]

Jemison's 2010–2011 project Future Plan and Program commissions and publishes literary works by artists of color.[24] It continued her artistic interest in reading while aiming to make books available to a wide community.[25] It has published works by Martine Syms, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Harold Mendez, and Jina Valentine, among others.

## Solo exhibitions[edit]

* End Over End, JOAN, Los Angeles, 2022.[26]
* Steffani Jemison, Annet Gelink, Amsterdam, 2022.[27]
* Broken Fall, Greene Naftali, New York, 2021.[28]
* End Over End, Contemporary Arts Center, Cicinnati, 2021.[29]
* Steffani Jemison: Sensus Plenior, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, 2020.[30]
* Steffani Jemison, Kai Matsumiya, New York, 2019.[31]
* Steffani Jemison: New Videos, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2019.[32]
* Decoders – Recorders, De Appel, Amsterdam, 2019.[33]
* Sensus Plenior, curated by Osei Bonsu, Jeu de Paume, Paris; CAPC Bordeaux, 2017.[34]
* Escaped Lunatic, MoMA, New York, 2016.[35]
* Steffani Jemison: Maniac Chase, Escaped Lunatic, and Personal, RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, 2015.[36]
* Same Time, curated by Amanda Hunt, LAXART, Los Angeles, 2013.[37]
* Museum as Hub: Alpha's Bet Is Not Over Yet, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 2011.[38]

## Awards and honors[edit]

Jemison’s work has been supported by a Herb Alpert Award in the Arts,[39] a Guggenheim Fellowship,[40] a Creative Capital Award,[41] a Radcliffe Fellowship,[42] a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship,[43] a Tiffany Foundation Fellowship,[44] an Anonymous Was a Woman Award,[45] and many other grants and awards. Artist residencies include the Studio Museum in Harlem AIR,[46] the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program,[47] Project Row Houses,[48] the Museum of Fine Arts Houston CORE Program,[49] the International Studio and Curatorial Program,[50] and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.[51]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Steffani Jemison". MoMA. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
2. ^ Lerner, Ben. "Force of Gravity". nybooks.com. ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
3. ^ "Steffani Jemison: New Videos". Stedelijk Museum. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
4. ^ "Steffani Jemison: Sensus Plenior". Whitney Museum. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
5. ^ "n-Between Days: Works on View April 4–19". Guggenheim Museum. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
6. ^ a b "Steffani Jemison - The Poetry Project". The Poetry Project. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
7. ^ a b Wilcox, Jess (June 24, 2015). "Promise Machine: At MoMA, Steffani Jemison Explores Blackness and Utopian Thought". ARTnews.com. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
8. ^ "ARTnews in Brief: Greene Naftali Now Represents Steffani Jemison—and More from September 17, 2021". ARTnews.
9. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Annet Gelink.
10. ^ Jemison, Steffani; Cardwell, Erica N. (September 17, 2021). "How Steffani Jemison Made Movement an Extension of Being". Frieze. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
11. ^ a b "How a Childhood at the Museum Influenced One Artist's Future". Carnegie Museum of Art: Storyboard. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
12. ^ a b Lax, Thomas J. (2013). "Steffani Jemison". Art in America. 101 (5).
13. ^ "AitN: March 11, 2019". Columbia College Today. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
14. ^ "Faculty & Staff: Steffani Jemison". Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
15. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. April 10, 2017. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
16. ^ "Steffani Jemison: Promise Machine | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
17. ^ "Interview with Thomas J. Lax, Associate Curator at MoMA | French Culture". frenchculture.org. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
18. ^ Plagens, Peter (November 8, 2014). "Ideology and Art From the Heart of Brooklyn". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
19. ^ "Promise Machine: At MoMA, Steffani Jemison Explores Blackness and Utopian Thought - Interviews - Art in America". www.artinamericamagazine.com. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
20. ^ Wilcox, Jess (June 24, 2015). "Promise Machine at MoMA: Steffani Jemison Explores Blackness and Utopian Thought". Art in America. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
21. ^ "Steffani Jemison: Prime, March 4—April 3, 2016". Nurture Art. Archived from the original on December 13, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
22. ^ a b "Interview with artist Steffani Jemison". RISD Museum. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
23. ^ Johnson, Ken (July 31, 2014). "'The Intuitionists' and 'Small'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
24. ^ "Future Plan and Program". futureplanandprogram.com. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
25. ^ Vogel, Wendy (January 2012). "Future Plan and Program". Flash Art. Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
26. ^ "Steffani Jemison, End Over End". JOAN.
27. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Annet Gelink.
28. ^ "Steffani Jemison: Broken Fall". Greene Naftali Gallery.
29. ^ "Steffani Jemison, End over End". Contemporary Arts Center.
30. ^ "Steffani Jemison: Sensus Plenior". Everson Museum of Art.
31. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Kai Matsumiya.
32. ^ "Steffani Jemison: New Videos". Stedelijk Museum.
33. ^ "Decoders – Recorders". De Appel.
34. ^ "Steffani Jemison. Sensus Plenior". Jeu de Paume.
35. ^ "Steffani Jemison's Escaped Lunatic". Museum of Modern Art.
36. ^ "Steffani Jemison: Maniac Chase, Escaped Lunatic, and Personal". RISD Museum.
37. ^ "Steffani Jemison: Same Time". LAXART.
38. ^ "Museum as Hub: Steffani Jemison and Jamal Cyrus: Alpha's Bet Is Not Over Yet!". New Museum.
39. ^ "Steffani Jemison: 2021". The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
40. ^ "Steffani Jemison". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
41. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Creative Capital. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
42. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
43. ^ "Introducing | NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program Recipients and Finalists". New York Foundation for the Arts. New York Foundation for the Arts. July 10, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
44. ^ "Steffani Jemison". The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
45. ^ Durón, Maximilíano (December 14, 2023). "Anonymous Was A Woman Names 2023 Winners, Including Artists Dindga McCannon, Carolina Caycedo, Barbara Kasten, Amanda Ross-Ho". ARTnews.com. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
46. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Studio Museum Harlem. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
47. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Sharpe Walentas Studio Program. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
48. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Steffani Jemison. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
49. ^ "Core Program Archive". The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
50. ^ "Steffani Jemison". ISCP. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
51. ^ "Steffani Jemison". Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. Retrieved September 5, 2023.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steffani Jemison.

* Official website
* Promise Machine exhibition at MoMA

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