Jordan Casteel is having her first New York solo museum show at the tender age of 31. An exhibition of nearly 40 canvases spanning seven years — opens at the New Museum on Feb. 19th. Many of the paintings are from her series “Nights in Harlem,” which depict African American men in the same Harlem community where Casteel lives. She wants you to see ordinary people of color just living their lives. It’s the scale that grabs your attention as well as the brilliant colors. Figurative art is making a comeback. And unlike artists from the 19th and 20th century, the lives of unsung heroes are taking center stage. Given the racial and political strife that America is dealing with, perhaps these new narratives are showing what we have more in common than not.
Artist Bio
Jordan Casteel (b. 1989, Denver, CO) received her BA from Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA for Studio Art (2011) and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT (2014). Casteel presented a solo exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO which traveled to the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University (2019) and has participated in exhibitions at institutional venues such as Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2018); MoCA, Los Angeles, CA (2018); Harvey B. Gantt Center, Charlotte, NC (2017); The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2017 and 2016); MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2017); Boston University Art Galleries, Boston, MA (2017); HOME, Manchester, UK (2016); University of Denver School of Art (2016); and Kenyon College, Gund Gallery, Gambier, OH (2015). Casteel has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, (2015) Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Process Space, Governors Island, NY, (2015), The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2015), and The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, DUMBO, NY (2016). Casteel’s work is included in numerous public collections including The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; MOCA, Los Angeles, CA; The Ford Foundation, New York, NY; Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, CA; The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, and Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO. She is an Assistant Professor of Painting in the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media at Rutgers University – Newark. She lives and works in New York, NY and is represented by Casey Kaplan, New York, NY.
WEST HARLEM ART FUND 