Making Reference – Opening Reception
Making Reference is a series of self-portraits by Houston-based artist Jaime Robertson. This work is influenced by representations of Black Women in art history and popular culture, engaging and critiquing the practice of Ethnographic photography from the Caribbean, South America, and North America, and paintings from those regions through Robertson’s own use of self-portraiture. Making Reference draws on the tradition of studio portraiture, which many colonized bodies were subjected to without their consent. The portrait studio, a controlled environment, was a site of exploitation of people of color; subjects were often posed in stereotypical postures, set within staged environments. This series allows Robertson to explore the history of Black Women in the Americas and how they were seen while simultaneously allowing her the agency of self-representation to confront perceptions of her own identity.
Exhibition on view January 30 – March 7, 2020
ABOUT JAMIE ROBERTSON:
Jamie Robertson is a visual artist and educator from Houston, Texas. She earned a BA in Art from the University of Houston and an MS in Art Therapy from Florida State University. She is a former recipient of the Pearlie Roberson Award for her joint Frenchtown Mural project. As an educator, Jamie is interested in cultural community development through creative youth development. Her creative practice is an autobiographical examination of history and identity in the African Diaspora through the mediums of photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Her work was featured in Through the Lens: Identity, Representation & Self-Presentation at Florida A & M University Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery. She currently works as a Teaching Artist while pursuing an MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in photography and digital media at the University of Houston.
ABOUT THE JXTA GALLERY:
The JXTA Gallery hosts exhibitions by local, national, and international visiting artists, as well as collections of work created by JXTA youth apprentices. The Gallery’s activities uplift, support, and provide a platform for local and regional emerging and established artists, prioritizing the work of people of color and artists from other marginalized communities.
Questions? Email gallery@juxtaposition.org or call 612.599.1148
Juxtaposition Arts’ exhibition programs are made possible by a host of individual donors and the generosity of the following program and general operating funders: AchieveMPLS, Bush Foundation, the General Mills Foundation, George Family Foundation – Next Generation Fund, The Kresge Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Otto Bremer Trust, Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, Morrie’s Minnetonka Subaru Share the Love Campaign, Surdna Foundation, Target, Twin Cities LISC, and funded in part by the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota November 4, 2008.