BLACK ART MATTERS WITH SAMUEL LEVI JONES
February 18, 2023
BY KON AWET
MOCA Jacksonville's virtual lecture series Black Art Matters (BAM) highlights Black art, culture, representation, and history. Each talk is led by leading Black voices in the arts, including noted artists, curators, and historians. This month, join artist Samuel Levi Jones, pictured above in his studio, to learn more about his work and career in the world of contemporary art.
Born in 1978 in Marion, Indiana, Jones was raised in a biracial household. He's known as a photographer and multi-disciplinary artist specializing in assemblage art. His works mainly focus on African American struggles for racial equality, representation, and protest injustice. Jones collects outdated law books, encyclopedias, and reference books, tears apart the covers, and sews them together. Targeting books that lacked representation of African Americans, Jones states, "When you think about that, it makes it easy to destroy the material."
© Samuel Levi Jones, Controlled Kill, 2021. Law books and history books on canvas, 50 x 45 in. Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles.
He went to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, and earned a BA in Communication Studies. He took a photography class during his last semester, which began his art career. Continuing his education, he earned a BFA at Herron School of Art and Design, training as a photographer and winning a Junior Bratton Award. Jones continued his education at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he earned a MFA in Studio Art and began using books in his artwork. He has won multiple awards for his work, such as the Vivian and Margarita Stephenson Award at Mills College, the Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize from Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and the Sustainable Arts Award from Sustainable Arts Foundation in San Francisco, California.
To learn more about Jones and his impactful artwork, join us for BAM on Tue, February 21 at 7 p.m. BAM is free to the public with the support of the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund. This virtual event is open to all.