Suzanne Jackson (artist) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Suzanne Jackson
Suzanne Jackson at Wormsloe Historic Site, Savannah, Georgia 2018
Born	(1944-01-30) January 30, 1944 (age 81) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Other names	Suzanne Fitzallen Jackson, Suzanne Jackson Odùsolú
Education	San Francisco State University (BA), Yale University (MFA)

Suzanne Jackson (born in 1944) is an amazing American artist, gallery owner, poet, and teacher. She has been creating art for over 50 years! Her artwork has been shown in museums and galleries all around the world.

Since the late 1960s, Suzanne Jackson has focused on making art. She has also been involved in theater, teaching, and helping her community. Her many talents include writing poetry, dancing, designing for plays, and creating paintings and drawings. She has even made 3D artworks!

Suzanne Jackson's Early Life and Schooling

Suzanne Jackson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1944. When she was just nine months old, her family moved to San Francisco, California. She lived there until she was eight.

From 1952 to 1961, Suzanne grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska. She finished high school there in 1961. As a teenager, she joined the National Audubon Society, which teaches people about birds and nature. This group helped inspire some of her early art.

In 1960, Suzanne was the first African American to attend the National 4-H Congress in Chicago. This helped her get scholarships for college. She received several awards, including scholarships from The International Latham Foundation, the Banff School of Fine Arts, and Standard Oil.

College Years and Learning Art

Suzanne went to San Francisco State University (SFSU). There, she studied both art and ballet. She earned a degree in painting. At SFSU, she worked with famous artists and teachers like Charles White. She also helped set up art shows at the campus gallery and taught art at a local school.

Later, in 1990, she earned a master's degree from Yale University's School of Drama. She focused on designing sets for plays.

Suzanne Jackson's Art Career

Starting Out: The 1960s and 1970s

After college, Suzanne toured South America with a ballet company. When she returned to California, she settled in Echo Park. She took a drawing class with Charles White at Otis Art Institute. There, she met other artists like Dan Concholar and David Hammons.

In 1968, Suzanne opened her own art space called Gallery 32. She ran it for two years and paid for it herself. During the 1970s, she had many solo art shows at the Ankrum Gallery. She also created special artist books that combined her poetry and paintings, like "What I Love" (1972) and "Animals" (1978).

Moving Around: The 1980s and 1990s

In 1981, Suzanne was invited to be a visiting artist at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. This was her first time visiting Savannah.

From 1981 to 1985, Suzanne lived in Idyllwild, California. She taught art at the Idyllwild School of Music and Arts. She also led the Fine and Performing Arts Department at the Elliott-Pope Preparatory School.

In 1987, Suzanne moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to study at Yale University for her master's degree. She learned about designing sets for plays from Ming Cho Lee. After Yale, she worked as a freelance designer for sets and costumes in different parts of the country. From 1994 to 1996, she was a teacher at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

In 1996, Suzanne moved to Savannah, Georgia, full-time. She became a painting professor at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and taught there until 2009.

Today: The 2000s and Beyond

Suzanne officially retired from SCAD in 2009. However, she continued to teach part-time until 2013. She also taught art history, including African American Art History, at Savannah State University from 2013 to 2014.

Suzanne is still an active part of the art community in Savannah. She continues to create and show her artwork. She also co-hosts a weekly radio show called Listen Hear on WHCJ 90.3 Savannah State University Radio. In 2019, she received a special grant for painters and sculptors from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

How Suzanne Jackson Creates Art

Suzanne Jackson believes that being an artist means solving problems, not just making pictures. She says, "to become an artist takes a whole lifetime." Throughout her career, she has found ideas in nature. She often connects the idea of "blackness" to nature in her art. Her work celebrates black people and their experiences without being overly political.

Visual Artworks

Suzanne Jackson uses many different materials in her visual art. She creates works on paper, paintings on canvas, and special prints called monoprints. Her works on paper include watercolors and drawings.

She mostly uses acrylic paint. Her early paintings had many thin layers of acrylic paint, similar to how old masters layered oil paints. She explained that these layers build a deep, rich look in her paintings. Some of her paintings, even if the color looks thin, might have 150 layers of paint!

In the 1990s, her art changed. She started trying new combinations of materials. Instead of canvas, she began using netting as a base for her art. She uses special acrylic gels to create 3D hanging artworks. These pieces are held together with fabric, paper, found objects, leaves, and different kinds of netting.

Her visual artworks are displayed in many public museums. These include the Museum of Modern Art, the California African American Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the Hammer Museum at UCLA.

Designing for Theater and Costumes

After graduating from Yale in 1990, Suzanne traveled around the Northeast (Connecticut, New York, and Philadelphia) and parts of California. She worked as a freelance designer for sets and costumes in plays.

Her costume designs were shown in an exhibition called "Onstage: A Century of African American Stage Design" at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York.

Some of the plays and performances she designed for include:

• BLUES ROOM at the Realto Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia (1997)
• THE SNOW QUEEN for a touring company (1996–98)
• CHILDREN OF THE SUN at The John F. Kennedy Center (1996–98)
• Being a scenographer (set designer) at St. Mary's College of Maryland for plays like Tartuffe and Fefu and Her friends (1994-96)
• STAMPING, SHOUTING, AND SINGING HOME at the Mark Taper Forum (1993)
• BOSEMAN AND LENA at the Philadelphia Drama Guild (1990)
• PERICLES and DAYLIGHT IN EXILE at Yale Repertory Theatre (1990)
• ROSE OF THE RANCHO at El Teatro Campesino (1989)
• All costumes for Barbara Feldman & Dancers (1988–96)
• THE WINTER'S TALE and MACBETH at the California Shakespeare Festival
• Designs for dance companies like Gus Solomons, Company Dance, and Jennifer Muller/The Works

Poetry and Writing

Suzanne Jackson's poetry has been supported by groups like the Cave Canem Foundation and the International Women's Writing Guild. She has published artist books that feature her poetry and paintings, such as "Animal" and "What I Love."

Her poetry and drawings are also included in several collections, like the Cave Canem Anthologies. Sometimes, her artist statements that go with her visual artworks are even written as poems!

Gallery 32: A Special Art Space

Many people know Suzanne Jackson because of Gallery 32. This art gallery was in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, and Suzanne ran it from 1968 to 1970. She wanted it to be a place where artists could support each other.

Gallery 32 was inspired by artist Charles White's idea that art could help with community action and social change. Suzanne wanted to create a place for sharing ideas and philosophies, not just a business. She paid for the gallery herself, mostly with money she earned from teaching.

The gallery quickly became an important place. It hosted discussions, poetry readings, and fundraisers for social causes. It showed art that had strong political and community messages. Suzanne wanted to make art by Black artists, with Black themes, available to everyone in the community.

Gallery 32 became one of the few art spaces in Los Angeles to show new African American artists like Gloria Bohanon, Emory Douglas, David Hammons, Betye Saar, and Timothy Washington. The gallery also held fundraisers for groups like the Black Arts Council, the Black Panther Party, and the Watts Towers Arts Center children's art program.

One very important show at the gallery was the 1970 Sapphire Show. This was the first time a major exhibition in Los Angeles focused on African American women artists. Gallery 32 played a key role in the social changes of that time and added to the diverse art scene in Los Angeles.

Suzanne Jackson as a Teacher

Suzanne Jackson has taught art at many different places throughout her career:

• 2014–2016: Adjunct Professor of Foundation Studies, Drawing, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia
• 2013–2014: Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts, African American Art History, Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia
• 2009–2013: Adjunct Professor of Painting (online), Graduate Studies, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia
• 1996–2009: Professor of Painting, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia
• 1994–1996: Scenographer and assistant professor, St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, Maryland
• 1982–1985: Chair of the Fine and Performing Arts Department, the Elliott‑Pope Preparatory School, Idyllwild, California
• 1972: Stanford University (summer), Stanford, California
• 1970: Dance and crafts instructor, Watts Tower Art Center, Watts, California

Exhibitions: Where Suzanne Jackson's Art Has Been Shown

Here is a list of some important exhibitions where Suzanne Jackson's artwork has been displayed:

• 2024: Suzanne Jackson: light and paper, Ortuzar, New York City, New York.
• 2024: Whitney Biennial 2024: Even better than the real thing, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City.
• 2019–2020: Suzanne Jackson: News!, Ortuzar Projects, New York City, New York.
• 2019: Life Model: Charles White and His Students, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California.
• 2019: Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades, Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2018: Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York City.
• 2018: West by Midwest Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
• 2017: Friends of African American Art Small Works, Jepson Center for the Arts, Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2016: 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Museum of African American History and Culture, Los Angeles, California.
• 2016: Reflections of the Self: Selections from the Permanent Collection, California African American Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California.
• 2015: SEEME/NY, SCOPE, ART BASEL, Miami, Virtual Gallery.
• 2013: Birdmusic, Indigo Sky Community Gallery, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2013–2014: Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980, Williams College Art Museum, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
• 2012: Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980, MoMA PS1, New York, New York.
• 2011: Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, Getty Foundation, Los Angeles, California.
• 2011: Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California.
• 2011: Places of Validation, Art and Progression, The Mural Conservancy Virtual Gallery,(CAAM) California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California.
• 2010: Lighter Than Usual, Danville Museum of Fine Art and History, Danville, Virginia.
• 2010: CFAC & Friends- Small Works Exhibition, Indigo Sky Community Gallery, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2010: 16th Annual Telfair Museum Art Fair, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2010: SPILL, Creative Force Artist Collective, Indigo Sky Community Gallery, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2010: ‘5 x 7’ Art Show, Hospice Savannah, Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2009: Phillip J. Hamilton Gallery, Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2009: Robert Ferst Center for the Arts, Richards and Westbrook Galleries, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.
• 2009: Gallery 32 and Its Circle, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California.
• 2008: Suzanne Jackson: Abstraction Today, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, Virginia.
• 2007: Suzanne Jackson, Monoprints: The Colored Garden, Carnegie Museum of Art, Oxnard, California.
• 2007: Recent American Watercolors, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, Virginia.
• 2005: Suzanne Jackson: Paintings and Monoprints, Off The Wall Gallery at The Marshall House, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2005: Monoprints and Drawings, Pinnacle Gallery, Savannah, Georgia.
• 2002: La Minime's Galerie, La Rochelle, France.
• 2000: The Right to Be, John Slade Ely House, Sankofa Cultural Arts Festival, New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1986: Black Like Me Gallery, San Francisco, California.
• 1985: Sargent Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, California.
• 1985: Museum of African‑American History and Culture, Los Angeles, California.
• 1984: Mitzi Landau 20th Century Art, Los Angeles, California.
• 1984: Ingber Gallery, New York, New York.
• 1981: California State Office Building, Los Angeles, California. (1981–1982)
• 1981: Exhibit A Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia.
• 1981: "Forever Free: Works by African‑American Women Artists,” Center for the Visual Arts, University of Illinois, Normal, Illinois; and other locations.
• 1977: Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• 1977: “Eleven From California,” Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York.
• 1975: “Suzanne Jackson /William Pajaud /Charles White,” Pioneer Museum, Haggin Art Galleries, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California.
• 1974: "Directions in Afro-American Art," Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
• 1974: Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York, N.Y.
• 1974: Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, California.
• 1973: Black Mirror, Womanspace, Los Angeles, California.
• 1972: Fresno Art Center, Fresno California.
• 1972: Pioneer Museum, Haggin Art Galleries, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California.