Steffani Jemison (b. 1981, Berkeley) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She uses time-based, photographic, and discursive platforms to examine “progress” and its alternatives. Her work encompasses a variety of media, including video, performance and sculpture, and is rooted in research. In her work Jemison addresses African-American culture and vernacular as well as the tensions between the private, social and political spheres through a variety of means, often examining the limits and structures of narrative storytelling and linear time. Her video works are frequently based around early cinematography, assimilating early cinematic tropes and techniques, to question the inherited narratives that form our perception of the world.
Steffani Jemison has taken part in numerous solo and group shows at: Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Genève (2024); Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2020); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2019); De Appel, Amsterdam (2019); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2017); CAPC, Bordeaux, FR (2017); MASS MoCA, North Adams (2017); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2017); RISD Museum, Providence (2015); and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015); Whitney Biennial, New York (2019) and Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum, Harlem, New York (2019-2020).
In 2024 she was awarded with the production grant of Lafayette Anticipations at Art Basel Paris 2024 represented by Madragoa.
Solo screening programs include Lincoln Center: Art of the Real (2018) and Gene Siskel Film Center: Conversations at the Edge (2018).
Her work is part of the collections such as The Museum of Modern Art (New York); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); Kadist (Paris); Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York); Castello di Rivoli (Italy); Studio Museum in Harlem (New York).
Steffani Jemison’s A Rock, A River, A Street, by Tara Aisha Wilis, The Brooklyn Rail, March 2023
How Steffani Jemison Made Movement an Extension of Being, by Steffani Jemison and Erica N. Cardwell, Frieze, September 2021
Steffani Jemison. The artist reflects on Lorraine Hansberry’s What Use Are Flowers?, by Steffani Jemison, MoMA, June 2020
DRAFTS. Steffani Jemison on the stroke, the glyph and the mark, Steffani Jemison,, ArtForum, April 2019
Installation view at Art Basel Paris (with Madragoa), Paris, France
October 15th - 20th, 2024
Tumblers
Installation view at Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Genève
June 8th – September 8th 2024
Installation view at Miart (with Madragoa), Milan, Italy
April 12th - 14th, 2024
Bound
Installation view at Greene Naftali, New York, United States
January 26th - March 9th, 2024
Installation view at Artissima (with Madragoa), Turin, Italy
November 3rd - 5th, 2023
Of Mythic Worlds: Works from the Distant Past through the Present
Installation view at The Drawing Center, New York, United States
March 8th - May 14th, 2023
Untitled (Rough Projection)
Installation view at The 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Seoul, South Korea
September 23rd - November 19th, 2023
End Over End
Installation view at JOAN Los Angeles, United States
February 19th - April 30th, 2022
WLD
Installation view at Madragoa, Lisbon , Portugal
October 22nd, 2021 - January 8th, 2022
WLD
Installation view at Madragoa, Lisbon, Portugal
October 22nd, 2021 - January 8th, 2022
Greater New York
Installation view at The Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York, United States
October 7th, 2021 - April 18th, 2022
End Over End
Installation view at Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, United States
March 5th - August 8th, 2021
Rights and Rituals: The Making of African American Debutante Culture
Installation view at California African American Museum, Los Angeles, United States
March 27th - August 15th, 2021
Broken Fall
Installation view at Greene Naftali, New York, United States
November 4th - December 4th, 2021
The Inconstant World
Installation view at Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
March 6th - May 30th, 2021
Figure 8
Installation view at Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, United States
March 27th - June 20th, 2021
When Language Seeks Its Other
Installation view at Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, Genève, Switzerland
January 29th - August 23rd, 2020
The Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize
Installation view at Galeria Municipal de Porto, Porto, Portugal
September 12th - November 15th, 2020
Steffani Jemison
Installation view at Kai Matsumiya, New York, United States
May 5th - June 29th, 2019
Sensus Plenior
Installation view at Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, United States
May 17th - September 22nd, 2019
Body / Building
Installation view at Madragoa, Lisbon, Portugal
September 7th - November 3rd, 2018
On Similitude
Performance at Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, United States
May 17th - September 22nd, 2019
Out of Easy Reach
Installation view at DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, United States
April 26th - August 5th, 2018
This is Utopia, to Some
Installation view at Kadist, Paris, France
March 10th - May 13th, 2018
Plant You Now, Dig You Later
Installation view at MASS MoCa, North Adams, United States
March 18th, 2017 - March 4th, 2018
Sensus Plenior
Installation view at CAPC – Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
October 17th, 2017 - January 21st, 2018