Ayana V. Jackson
Must-see Gallery Show

Anna Brady & Margaret Carrigan, The Art Newspaper, September 4, 2019

New commercial gallery shows—from Baroque blackness in Chicago to flying saucers in London

 

"Christening the new Chicago gallery of former Seattle-based dealer Mariane Ibrahim, Ayana V. Jackson’s moodily lit self-portraits offer a powerful and haunting presentation of black femininity in Baroque brilliance. In previous photo series, the artist and filmmaker often re-staged archival images from colonial Africa as a way of recasting and reclaiming black identity using her own body. The works in this show, however, prove a departure as she instead introduces fictional characters based on African and African Diasporic water spirits, creating a mythical “aquatopia” centred around female power."