Steffani Jemison
(b. 1981)2012–13 Artist in ResidenceMultimedia artist Steffani Jemison’s work incorporates deeply engaged research into her artistic practice, exploring movement, cinema, performance, language, and history across various mediums including video, drawing, performance, and sound.
Biography
Jemison often works collaboratively with performers, aspiring actors, and dancers. Her work investigates Black vernacular traditions and anti-heroic revisitations of historical events and figures. Jemison’s work responds to and expands off film tropes such as “the chase.” She is also interested in public space and the politics of representation that have shaped her early understanding of Black life.
Jemison received a BA in comparative literature from Columbia University in 2003, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. From 2012 to 2013, she participated as an artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, alongside Jennifer Packer and Cullen Washington Jr. Her work has also been featured in the group exhibition Fore in 2012.
Jemison is the author of A Rock, A River, A Street, and her writings have been published in Artforum and the Brooklyn Rail, among others. Her work has been exhibited at institutions globally, including the CAPC Bordeaux, France; the Drawing Center, New York; MASS MoCA, Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. The Studio Museum first acquired her work in 2013.
Exhibitions and Events
Steffani Jemison
(b. 1981)2012–13 Artist in ResidenceMultimedia artist Steffani Jemison’s work incorporates deeply engaged research into her artistic practice, exploring movement, cinema, performance, language, and history across various mediums including video, drawing, performance, and sound.
Untitled (X), 2013
Biography
Jemison often works collaboratively with performers, aspiring actors, and dancers. Her work investigates Black vernacular traditions and anti-heroic revisitations of historical events and figures. Jemison’s work responds to and expands off film tropes such as “the chase.” She is also interested in public space and the politics of representation that have shaped her early understanding of Black life.
Jemison received a BA in comparative literature from Columbia University in 2003, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. From 2012 to 2013, she participated as an artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, alongside Jennifer Packer and Cullen Washington Jr. Her work has also been featured in the group exhibition Fore in 2012.
Jemison is the author of A Rock, A River, A Street, and her writings have been published in Artforum and the Brooklyn Rail, among others. Her work has been exhibited at institutions globally, including the CAPC Bordeaux, France; the Drawing Center, New York; MASS MoCA, Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. The Studio Museum first acquired her work in 2013.
Exhibitions and Events