Tomashi Jackson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tomashi Jackson
Jackson speaks in 2024
Born	1980 (age 44–45) Houston, TX
Education	Yale School of Art MIT School of Architecture and Planning Cooper Union

Tomashi Jackson, born in 1980, is an American artist who creates amazing art using many different things. She works with paintings, videos, fabrics, and sculptures. She was born in Houston, Texas, grew up in Los Angeles, and now lives and works in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2019, she was chosen to be part of the famous Whitney Biennial art show. Tomashi Jackson also teaches sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her artwork can be seen in the collection of the MOCA Los Angeles. Back in 2004, she created a huge mural, 20 feet high and 80 feet long, called Evolution of a Community in Los Angeles.

What is Tomashi Jackson's Art About?

Tomashi Jackson's art explores how art and important social issues are connected. She often looks at past events and links them to how art is made today.

How Does She Use Color in Her Art?

Her art often uses many different materials and is inspired by Josef Albers' ideas about how colors change when they are next to each other. This makes her art full of bright colors, cool shapes, and many layers. Jackson first became interested in Albers' work when she was studying painting at Yale University. She noticed that the way Albers talked about colors was similar to how people talked about racial segregation in schools. This was also like the language used in civil rights court cases fought by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

This made Jackson decide to use color theory as a way to explore and connect the past with the present. She said, "Color theory and human rights are woven together in my paintings." She believes that comparing these ideas helps her to talk about racism through her art.

Connecting Art and Justice

Jackson's art often includes images painted from photos and other materials. These choices help her to "bridge the gaps between cool geometric experiments and the way unfairness is organized in society."

She is very interested in how people move and migrate, especially when people of color are stopped from moving freely. For example, in her 2019 Whitney Biennial project, she compared how people of color lost their homes in the 1800s when Seneca Village was turned into Central Park. She linked this to how homeowners in Brooklyn recently lost their homes because of a policy called third-party transfer.

Her work was also part of a traveling art show in 2019 called Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art.

Tomashi Jackson's Education

Tomashi Jackson studied at several great schools. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Cooper Union in 2010. Then, she received her Master of Science (MS) from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning in 2012. Finally, she earned her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art in 2016.

Teaching and Sharing Art

Tomashi Jackson has shared her knowledge by giving talks and teaching at many places. These include Cooper Union, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, UMass Dartmouth, Boston University, School of Visual Arts, and New York University.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

Tomashi Jackson's art has been shown in many places, both by herself and with other artists.

Solo Exhibitions

These are shows where only Tomashi Jackson's art was displayed:

• 2014 - Love Economy: Emerging Visions of the African American Experience, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
• 2016 - The Subliminal Is Now, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
• 2018 - Interstate Love Song, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA
• 2019 - Time Out of Mind, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
• 2020 - Forever My Lady, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
• 2020 – Love Rollercoaster, The Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
• 2022 – SLOW JAMZ, Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase, NY
• 2024 - Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
• A future show, Platform: Tomashi Jackson, is planned for the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY

Group Exhibitions

These are shows where her art was displayed alongside other artists' work:

• 2012 - Brucennial, MoMA PS1
• 2016 - Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter, New Museum
• 2017 - In the Abstract, Mass MoCA
• 2019 - Whitney Biennial, put together by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta
• 2020 - Slowed and Throwed: Records of the City Through Mutated Lenses, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
• Her art has also been shown at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.