For nearly a decade, Cincinnati-raised, Brooklyn-based artist Steffani Jemison has been deeply invested in examining the ways knowledge is constructed and legitimized. This interest stems from a fascination with frameworks of interpretation and narration, as well as critical theory, and vernacular traditions, including street acrobatics and vaudeville. She explores these concepts through a practice that encompasses sculpture, video, installation, sound, and fiction writing.

This exhibition brings together two videos, alongside a new suite of kinetic sculptural objects and conceptual drawings on glass that unfold as a series of experiments, reflecting Jemison’s interest in performance and the politics of embodiment. The exhibition centers around a new video, Toss (2021) that captures a gymnast performing a series of task-based actions informed by rhythmic gymnastics and tumbling. Together, the objects, drawings, and videos explore the symbolic, expressive, and material implications of the act of “agitation” and “turning.”

Artist

Steffani Jemison

About the Artist

Steffani Jemison was born in 1981 in Berkeley, CA, and raised in Cincinnati. She received her BA from Columbia University (2003) and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2009). Since 2016, she has been a part of the musical collaborative, Mikrokosmos, with Justin Hicks. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions and special projects at LAXART, Los Angeles (2013); RISD Museum, Providence (2015); Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; Jeu de Paume, Paris (both 2017); Nottingham Contemporary (2018); and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2019), among others. She has also been included in numerous group exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2012); The Drawing Center, New York, NY (2015); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and the Whitney Biennial, New York (both 2019). Jemison currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Curated by

Amara Antilla, Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center

Sponsored by

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