Jalen Jackson
Artist Bio
Jalen T. Jackson (b. 1997, Durham, NC) uses his studio as a refuge to explore personal and collective memory rooted in African American life, challenging narratives that reduce Black experience to suffering by centering care, joy, and resilience. Working primarily in painting and drawing, he depicts figures within communal spaces and domestic interiors, where gestures suggest connection, conflict, and resolution. Drawing from observation and photography, he reconstructs remembered moments, balancing figuration and abstraction through rhythmic mark-making and layered color relationships. These compositions create psychological spaces where time is reimagined, and new possibilities emerge, inviting meditation and proposing an imagined future grounded in community, care, and togetherness.
Jackson is currently pursuing his MFA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his BFA from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at institutions including the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC (2025); CAM Raleigh, Raleigh, NC (2024); the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (2025–2026); and GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art, Greensboro, NC (2023). He has had solo exhibitions at Artspace, Raleigh, NC (2025); Durham Arts Council, Durham, NC (2024); Wake Technical Community College, Raleigh, NC (2023); and Barton College, Wilson, NC (2023). He was the inaugural HBCU Artist-in-Residence at Artspace, Raleigh, NC (2023–2024) and is a recipient of a Durham Arts Council grant (2023). Jackson is also the recipient of the Hobbs Award for Painting, the Cowin Award, and the Lowder Award, Chapel Hill, NC (2025–2026).