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Artist

SUZANNE JACKSON

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Artist

SUZANNE JACKSON

SUZANNE JACKSON - Artists - Ortuzar

Biography

Suzanne Jackson works experimentally across mediums, including drawing, painting, printmaking, bookmaking, poetry, dance, theater and costume design. In her lyrical work from the 1960s and 70s, figures and recurring symbols are built through multiple layers of acrylic wash on canvas, making for ethereal paintings in which any firm distinction between depicted elements is dissolved. Similarly built up through layers of pure acrylic, Jackson’s recent works are partially structured with produce bags, rods, paper fragments, peanut shells, bamboo bells and leather string. Her “environmental abstractions” dispense with the canvas, allowing the paintings to move off the wall and exist within the space of the viewer.

After Jackson studied painting and theater at San Francisco State University, she settled in Echo Park, where she worked as an artist and teacher and attended Charles White’s drawing class at the Otis Art Institute. There Jackson engaged a community of artist peers and initiated Gallery 32, showcasing figures like David Hammons, Timothy Washington, Alonzo Davis, Dan Concholar, Senga Nengudi, George Evans, Gloria Bohanon, Betye Saar and Emory Douglas.

Suzanne Jackson (b. 1944, St. Louis, Missouri) lives and works between Savannah, Georgia and St. Remy, New York. She received an MFA in theater design from Yale University in 1990 and is a recipient of the Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting (2024), Jacob Lawrence Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters (2022), an Anonymous Was A Woman grant (2021), NYFA Murray Reich Distinguished Artist Award (2020) and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2019). Recent solo and survey exhibitions include Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, Whitney Musuem of American Art, New York (2024); Finding Aid, Goldsmith's Center for Contemporary Art, London (2024); Vital Signs: Artists and the Body, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2024); Suzanne Jackson: light and paper, Ortuzar Projects, New York (2024); Somethings in the World, Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Milan (2023); To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting, Gagosian, London (2023); Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art, Knoxville Museum of Art (2023); Suzanne Jackson: Listen’ N Home, the Arts Club of Chicago (2022); Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2022); Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022); You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby: The Sapphire Show, Ortuzar Projects, New York (2021); Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades, Jepson Center/Telfair Museums, Savannah (2019); Life Model: Charles White and His Students, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); NEWS!, Ortuzar Projects, New York (2019); West by Midwest, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018–2019); Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Brooklyn Museum, New York and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (2018–2020); Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, MoMA PS1, New York, and Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts (2011–2013); Gallery 32 & Its Circle, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles (2009). Her work is held in the collections of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Buffalo AKG Art Museum; MCA San Diego; California African American Museum, Los Angeles; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Baltimore Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; and The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, among others. Jackson will have her first major retrospective from 2025 to 2026, organized by SFMOMA and the Walker Art Center and traveling to the MFA Boston. In 2023, the artist established the Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson Foundation (SFJF), an artist foundation dedicated to providing fully-supported residencies for emerging and mid-career artists, particularly those underrepresented from the South. The foundation is based in her beloved Savannah home, where she has lived and worked for nearly three decades.

Suzanne Jackson Website

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Works

Works Thumbnails
Suzanne Jackson, 9, Billie, Mingus, Monk’s, 2003

Suzanne Jackson, 9, Billie, Mingus, Monk’s, 2003

Suzanne Jackson, Frozen Elsie, 2000

Suzanne Jackson, Frozen Elsie, 2000

Suzanne Jackson, Triplical Communications, 1969

Suzanne Jackson, Triplical Communications, 1969

Suzanne Jackson, The American Sampler, 1972

Suzanne Jackson, The American Sampler, 1972

Suzanne Jackson, In A Black Man's Garden, 1973

Suzanne Jackson, In A Black Man's Garden, 1973

Suzanne Jackson, Talk, 1976

Suzanne Jackson, Talk, 1976

Suzanne Jackson, Wind and Water, 1975

Suzanne Jackson, Wind and Water, 1975

Suzanne Jackson, Yellow/Fall, 1978

Suzanne Jackson, Yellow/Fall, 1978

Suzanne Jackson, Ma-Yaa, 2994-98

Suzanne Jackson, Ma-Yaa, 2994-98

Suzanne Jackson, Lizzie and Me with Friends, 2005

Suzanne Jackson, Lizzie and Me with Friends, 2005

Suzanne Jackson, Blues Garden + Track/Back-Sea, 2010

Suzanne Jackson, Blues Garden + Track/Back-Sea, 2010

Suzanne Jackson, a history drawing-cracked wall, 2016-19

Suzanne Jackson, a history drawing-cracked wall, 2016-19

Suzanne Jackson, oldblueshanging, while she waits, 2017

Suzanne Jackson, oldblueshanging, while she waits, 2017

Suzanne Jackson, Alice playing harp, her veils in the wind, 2017

Suzanne Jackson, Alice playing harp, her veils in the wind, 2017

Suzanne Jackson, Crossing Ebenzer, 2017

Suzanne Jackson, Crossing Ebenzer, 2017

Suzanne Jackson, Hers and His, 2018

Suzanne Jackson, Hers and His, 2018

Suzanne Jackson, Rag-to-Wobble, 2020

Suzanne Jackson, Rag-to-Wobble, 2020

Suzanne Jackson, pieces of what, - we thought before, 2021

Suzanne Jackson, pieces of what, - we thought before, 2021

Suzanne Jackson, 9, Billie, Mingus, Monk’s, 2003
Suzanne Jackson, Frozen Elsie, 2000
Suzanne Jackson, Triplical Communications, 1969
Suzanne Jackson, The American Sampler, 1972
Suzanne Jackson, In A Black Man's Garden, 1973
Suzanne Jackson, Talk, 1976
Suzanne Jackson, Wind and Water, 1975
Suzanne Jackson, Yellow/Fall, 1978
Suzanne Jackson, Ma-Yaa, 2994-98
Suzanne Jackson, Lizzie and Me with Friends, 2005
Suzanne Jackson, Blues Garden + Track/Back-Sea, 2010
Suzanne Jackson, a history drawing-cracked wall, 2016-19
Suzanne Jackson, oldblueshanging, while she waits, 2017
Suzanne Jackson, Alice playing harp, her veils in the wind, 2017
Suzanne Jackson, Crossing Ebenzer, 2017
Suzanne Jackson, Hers and His, 2018
Suzanne Jackson, Rag-to-Wobble, 2020
Suzanne Jackson, pieces of what, - we thought before, 2021

Videos

Suzanne Jackson in Conversation with Giampoalo Bianconi, Associate Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago | Society for Contemporary Art, Chicago

Exhibitions

Suzanne Jackson
Exhibition
Suzanne Jackson
light and paper September 12 – October 19, 2024
You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby: The Sapphire Show
Exhibition
You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby: The Sapphire Show
Gloria Bohanon, Suzanne Jackson, Betye Saar, Senga Nengudi, Yvonne Cole Meo, Eileen Nelson June 8 – July 31, 2021
Suzanne Jackson
Exhibition
Suzanne Jackson
News! November 20, 2019 – January 25, 2020

Art Fairs

Art Basel Miami Beach 2024
Art Fair
Art Basel Miami Beach 2024
December 6 – December 8, 2024
Frieze Masters 2024
Art Fair
Frieze Masters 2024
October 9 – 13, 2024
Art Basel Miami Beach 2023
Art Fair
Art Basel Miami Beach 2023
December 6 – 10, 2023
Frieze Masters 2023
Art Fair
Frieze Masters 2023
October 11 – 15, 2023
Frieze Masters 2022
Art Fair
Frieze Masters 2022
CYNTHIA HAWKINS, SUZANNE JACKSON, JUNE LEAF October 12 – October 16, 2022
Frieze Los Angeles 2022
Art Fair
Frieze Los Angeles 2022
SUZANNE JACKSON February 17 – February 20, 2022

Press

News

Suzanne Jackson featured in ARTnews

Influential Painter Suzanne Jackson to Get a Traveling Retrospective by Alex Greenberger

March 25, 2025

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in Frieze

Suzanne Jackson’s Rich Tapestry of Community Building by Jamey Hatley

October 30, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in Frieze

Nobody told me that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.

October 30, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in The Brooklyn Rail

Suzanne Jackson: light and paper by Beryl Gilothwest

October 9, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson: light and paper reviewed in The New Yorker

Suzanne Jackson's Natural World by Hilton Als

September 30, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson Featured in Vulture

10 Art Shows We Can't Wait to See This Fall by Jerry Saltz

August 27, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in Cultured Magazine

Here are the 12 Must-See Shows Coming to New York This Fall By Julie Halperin and Sophie Lee

August 26, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson interviewed by T Magazine

How It Begins by Laura May Todd

April 21, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in artnet news

A Whitney Biennial Buyer’s Guide, From a Pioneering Feminist Painter to a Fast-Emerging Figurative Sculptor

March 19, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in Vulture

What to See and What to Skip at the Whitney Biennial by Jerry Saltz

March 19, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in The New York Times

Whitney Biennial Names Its ‘Dissonant Chorus’ of Artists to Probe Turbulent Times by Siddhartha Mitter

January 25, 2024

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in Art in America

Don't Call It a Comeback by Sarah Douglas

August 7, 2023

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News

LISTEN' N HOME REVIEWED IN HYPERALLERGIC

Hints of Memory in Layers of Paint by Susannah Papish

November 28, 2022

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News

LISTEN' N HOME REVIEWED IN NEWCITY ART

The Music of Life: Suzanne Jackson’s Listen’ N Home at The Arts Club of Chicago

November 8, 2022

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News

Suzanne Jackson Featured in The Brooklyn Rail

Suzanne Jackson with Lilly Wei

Fall 2022

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON IN LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS

What is L.A. Art? by Perwana Nazif

Spring 2022

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON RECEIVES 2022 JACOB LAWRENCE AWARD IN ART

ADMINISTERED BY THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS

April 19, 2022

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON, CARRIE MAE WEEMS, KARA WALKER, RALPH LEMON, ET AL. ON FAITH RINGGOLD IN INTERVIEW MAGAZINE

ASK ME ANYTHING: HOW AND FROM WHERE DO YOU LOOK AT THE STARS?

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON FEATURED IN ARTSY

THE 10 BEST BOOTHS FEATURED AT FRIEZE LOS ANGELES 2022 BY CATHLEEN WAGLEY

February 18, 2022

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON AT FRIEZE LA FEATURED IN ARTNEWS

BY MAXIMILÍANO DURÓN

February 18, 2022

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON & 2021 FCA BENEFIT FEATURED IN VOGUE

106 ARTISTS UNITE FOR A COMMON CAUSE BY MARLEY MARIUS

December 10, 2021

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON INCLUDED IN 17TH ANNUAL EXHIBITION TO BENEFIT THE FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS

Curated by Sonia Louise Davis at Greene Naftali Gallery

December 9, 2021

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News

Suzanne Jackson named 2021 Anonymous Was a Woman Awardee

Anonymous Was a Woman Names 2021 Winners, Expands Award Program by Tessa Solomon

November 9, 2021

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News

"The Negro Artist's Dilemma" Revisited

Suzanne Jackson in conversation with Lorraine O’Grady and Shinique Smith on the legacy of Romare Bearden’s 1946 essay, for the Gibbes Museum of Art

November 17, 2021

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON INTERVIEWED BY BARBARA MCCULLOUGH IN BOMB MAGAZINE

Fall 2021

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News

Suzanne Jackson receives the 2021 Murray Reich Distinguished Artist Award

Administered by New York Foundation for the Arts

September 14, 2021

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News

You've Come a Long Way, Baby reviewed in Art in America

ASSEMBLAGE AS MEDIUM AND METHOD: “YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY: THE SAPPHIRE SHOW” AT ORTUZAR PROJECTS by Sinclair Spratley

July 30, 2021

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News

You've Come a Long Way, Baby featured in Culture Type

Black Female Artists Who Got Their Start in 1960s and 70s are Focus of Two Group Exhibitions in New York by Victoria L. Valentine

July 31, 2021

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News

You've Come A Long Way, Baby reviewed in Hyperallergic

A Landmark Show of Black Women Artists Gets a Second Life by Alexandra M. Thomas

July 27, 2021

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News

You've Come A Long Way, Baby highlighted in Hyperallergic

Your Concise New York Art Guide for July 2021 by Dessane Lopez Cassell and Cassie Packard

July 13, 2021

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News

You've Come A Long Way, Baby Reviewed in The Brooklyn Rail

You've Come A Long Way, Baby: The Sapphire Show by Zoë Hopkins

July 13, 2021

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News

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY REVIEWED IN THE NEW YORKER

by Andrea K. Scott

July 5, 2021

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News

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY FEATURED ON THE NEW YORKER’S CULTURE DESK

Rediscovering a Revolutionary Gallery Show of Black Women’s Art by Andrea K. Scott

July 3, 2021

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News

You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby featured in The New York Times

A Rare Spotlight on Black Women's Art Still Shines After 51 years By Ted Loos

June 16, 2021

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News

You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby Previewed in The Financial Times

By Melanie Gerlis

June 10, 2021

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News

Mary Lovelace O’Neal interviewed by Suzanne Jackson in Bomb magazine

Winter 2020

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON’S GALLERY 32 FEATURED IN FRIEZE MAGAZINE

“Gallery Garden Garage”: A dossier on the history of domestic exhibition spaces in Los Angeles

January/February 2021

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News

Suzanne Jackson included in "Winterfest" at the Aspen Art Museum

Curated by Saim Demircan in collaboration with Veit Laurent Kurz

December 18, 2020

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Suzanne Jackson included in "Stars of Everything”

Dial World, Part II: a group exhibition at David Lewis Gallery

October 29, 2020

News

Suzanne Jackson in Artsy

The Artsy Vanguard 2020

September 20, 2020

News

Suzanne Jackson in T Magazine

THE ARTISTS BY M. H. MILLER, FROM THE 2020 CULTURE ISSUE: WE ARE FAMILY

April 13, 2020

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON MENTIONED IN ARTNET NEWS

ART COLLECTOR PAMELA JOYNER INTERVIEWED BY NATE FREEMAN

April 20, 2020

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News

Suzanne Jackson in Art in America

Suzanne Jackson's Ethereal Acrylic Hangings Connect Autobiography and Abstraction by Glenn Adamson

February 17, 2020

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News

Suzanne Jackson reviewed in The New York Times

What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week by Will Heinrich

January 9, 2020

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News

Walkthrough of Suzanne Jackson: NEWS! with Ashley James and the artist

January 16, 2020 at 7 pm


 

News

SUZANNE JACKSON REVIEWED IN THE NEW YORKER

SUZANNE JACKSON BY JOHANNA FATEMAN

January 1, 2020

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News

Suzanne Jackson interviewed in Artnet News

'We Had to Do It For Ourselves': Legendary Gallerist and Artist Suzanne Jackson on Why the Art World Has Never Gotten Her Story Right by Melissa Smith

November 20, 2019

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News

SUZANNE JACKSON INTERVIEWED IN T MAGAZINE

An Artist Who Makes Paintings Without a Canvas by Julia Felsenthal

November 19, 2019

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News

Suzanne Jackson featured in Frieze

The Paradoxes of Gallerist and Artist Suzanne Jackson by Chase Quinn

November 15, 2019

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