Tomashi Jackson: SLOW JAMZ (The 2022 Roy R. Neuberger Prize Award Exhibition)

The 2022 Roy R. Neuberger Prize Award exhibition is a dynamic, immersive multimedia experience that fills the Neuberger Museum of Art’s South Gallery with floor-to-ceiling projections and soundtracks by internationally acclaimed painter, printmaker, and video artist Tomashi Jackson.

Jackson’s practice investigates the relationships between the aesthetic and the political while conceptually interweaving Josef Albers-inspired color theory with human rights concerns. She utilizes light, color, sound, and texture as vehicles to explore issues of injustice and bring the power of art and policy to bear on historical engagement and critical action.

Tomashi Jackson: SLOW JAMZ is the artist’s first solo exhibition to focus primarily on her video collages. Works from five projects are on view: Plain Cite Plain Site Plain Sight addresses the transformative poetics of informal domestic-labor economies of Black women in the built environment. The Subliminal is Now examines histories and contemporary implications of school-desegregation litigation and legislation in the United States. Interstate Love Song investigates histories and contemporary experiences of transportation-centered voting referenda and the maintenance of de facto segregation in and around Atlanta. Forever My Lady features the artist’s alter ego Tommy Tonight and friends, exploring generational links and contradictions between participatory democracy and love with a focus on Los Angeles. The Land Claim explores intertwined living histories of Black, Indigenous Shinnecock, and Latin American people on the East End of Long Island, New York.   Nearly all the videos have soundtracks. One knit object and two photographs will also be on view. The show will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue.

Tomashi Jackson: SLOW JAMZ is curated by Helaine Posner, Chief Curator Emerita, Neuberger Museum of Art. Generous support for the Roy R. Neuberger Prize and this exhibition has been provided by Jim Neuberger and Helen Stambler Neuberger.