About
Interdisciplinary artist Jefferson Pinder gained national attention with the exhibition Frequency at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 2006. This show featured his Car Wash Meditations, a short video of a car rolling through a carwash to the music of Nas’ “Made You Look,” while explosive colors of soap manifest as action painting on the screen. The combination of sound and image is set against a profile of the artist seated in the car. In this and all his work, Pinder applies his knowledge of music, imagery, and performance to address complex issues of race, ethnicity, and class.
Troy Patterson of Slate Magazine praised Pinder’s work, saying its impact “lies in its ability to provoke meaningful dialogue.” The Washington Post compared his early work to that of Jacob Lawrence: “Like all Pinder’s best videos, it is a simple conceit, simply realized. But it speaks simply of the same complexities that Jacob Lawrence did.”
Pinder says of his work:
“Inspired by the symbiosis of music and the moving image, I portray the oppressed body both frenetically and through drudgery in order to convey relevant cultural experiences. I do so through disparate materials that each evoke multiple histories of oppression. I find ways in which reclaimed materials convey rugged histories, relating them to a Black American experience.”
Jefferson with performers from THIS IS NOT A DRILL
Pinder’s 2019 series of performances explored the events of Red Summer of 1919. With a select group of performers, Pinder brought disparate historical locations and events back into focus through re-enactment. Videos including Float, Elaine, Fire and Movement, THIS IS NOT A DRILL and Sonic Boom were created at the location of each significant event. The performance documentation reflects on racism and trauma with the hope of inspiring dialogue about history and the potential for change.
BIO
Jefferson Pinder (b. 1970, Washington, D.C.) has produced highly praised performance-based and multidisciplinary work for over a decade. His work has been featured in numerous solo and group shows including exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, The High Museum in Atlanta, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and Tate Modern in London, UK. In 2017, Pinder received a Guggenheim Fellowship; he also won a 2016 USA Joyce Fellowship Award in the field of performance, and in 2017 the Moving Image Acquisition Award. Most recently, he was named a 2021 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow.
Pinder received a BA in Theatre and an MFA in Mixed Media from the University of Maryland, and studied at the Asolo Theatre Conservatory in Sarasota, FL. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland from 2003-2011. He is currently Professor of Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
CV
B. 1970, Washington, D.C.
Lives and works in Chicago, IL
EDUCATION
2003 MFA, Painting and Mixed Media, University of Maryland
1992 BA, Theatre, University of Maryland
1993 Asolo Theatre Conservatory MFA Program Theatre, Florida State University
SOLO EXHIBITIONS & PERFORMANCES
2023 The Deserter, Social Justice Billboard Project, Northeast Sculpture/Front Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2022 Zulu Sign Language (performance), The Cube at the Moss Center for the Arts, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA
2021 Monumental (performance), Untitled Art Fair, Hosted Performance, Miami, FL
Selections from the Inertia Cycle 2003-2014, Western Carolina University, Bardo Center for the Arts, Cullowhee, North Carolina
2020 HAL Over Woodward, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Prowl, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
2019 FLASH POINT, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
float, Chicago Parks District, Chicago, IL
Fire and Movement, Diverseworks, Houston, TX
THIS IS NOT A DRILL, Source Theater, Washington D.C.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
THIN SKIN / SHOCK LAYER, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN
2018 Sonic Boom, By the People, Washington D.C.
2017 Lazarus, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT
2016 Dark Matter (performance), Lafayette College, Easton, PA
Dark Matter (performance), Reginald Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MD
Thoroughbred (performance), FADO Performance Art Centre, Toronto, Canada
2015 Onyx Odyssey, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
Dark Matter ( performance), David C. Driskell Center, The University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Dark Matter ( performance), Phillips Collection, DuPont Circle, Washington, DC
Counterbalance: New Video Work, Figge Museum, Davenport, IA
VOLTA 2015, NY, Pier 90, New York, NY
Action, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
2014 Thoroughbred (performance) Dead Weight Performance Series--Linn Hixon/Matthew Goulish curators, Sector 2337, Chicago, IL
Dark Matter (performance), York College of Pennsylvania, PA
Dark Matter, York College of Pennsylvania, PA
2013 Work, Elizabeth Holden Gallery, Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC
Revival: A Musical Installation, G-Fine Art, Washington, D.C
Civic Meditations, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Charlottesville, VA
2012 Ben-Hur (performance), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Ben-Hur (performance), G-Fine Art, Washington, D.C.
2011 Juke- A (Musical Installation), Electronic Media Gallery at Salisbury University, MD
2009 EL Museo Del Ghetto, G-Fine Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Anthology, INOVA Contemporary Art Center. UW-Milwaukee, WI
2008 Two Videos (Car Wash Meditations/Invisible Man). Flint Institute of Art, Flint, MI
Afro-Cosmonaut/Alien (White Noise), Patricia Sweetow Gallery
Legacy; Continuum, University of North Florida Art Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
2007 Shoeshine Variation, G-Fine Art, Washington, D.C.
2006 Juke, G-Fine Art, Washington, D.C.
2005 Mining the Media, Marshall University, Huntington, WV
Middle Passage, Xavier University, New Orleans, LA
2004 Totem Voices, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA Group Shows
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 The Long Dream, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
2018 Selling the Shadow, Cairns Art Gallery, Australia
2017 Selling the Shadow, C-Gallery, Milan, Italy
Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
Third Space / Shifting Conversations About Contemporary Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
2016 Selling the Shadow to Support the Substance, Gallery Momo, Cape Town, South Africa
Shanghai Biennale, Power Station Shanghai, China
Visual Art and the American Experience, Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
Other Worlds, Other Places, Washington Projects for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Geometrix: Line, Form, Subversion, Curator’s Office, Washington, D.C.
2015 Gilding the Lily, Area 405, Baltimore, MD
Cosmosis, Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago, IL
2014 Context Art Miami (w/ Larry Cook), Miami, FL
Northern Spark Exhibition, Minneapolis, MN
SELECT 2015, WPA ART Exhibition, Washington, DC
2013 Etched in Collective History, The Jemison Galleries, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Participating artist for Du Bois Project at University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mass
Network of Mutuality: 50 Years Post-Birmingham, The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, MD
Overturn the Artifice, SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
2012 Embracing the FARB: Modes of Reenactment, Glass Curtain Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
African American Art Since 1950 - Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
AMOA-Arthouse LIFT Projects, The Jones Center, Austin, TX
Foggy Bottom, Third Biennial Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, curated by Laura Roulet, Washington, D.C.
2011 Black Male Identity: Speak My Name, James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
MOVES: International Festival of Movement on Screen. Liverpool, UK
Poetic Aesthetic: An exploration of Creativity in Poetry and Visual Art, The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, MD
2010 (I Can) Feel the Pulse. Group show with Emory Douglas. Showroom Mama Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Modern and Contemporary Art since 1945; FOCUS, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Milwaukee International One-Minute Video Fair. Tate Modern, London, UK
After 1968, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
Searching for the Heart of Black Identity, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, (Shands and Steve Wilson Galleries)
2009 After 1968: Contemporary Artists And The Civil Rights Legacy, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Profess. University of Maryland Department of Art Faculty Exhibition, College Park, MD
Sound: Record: Print, University of Delaware, Wilmington, DE
Everything In-Between, Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Dark Fair, Milwaukee International (INOVA), Cologne, Germany
Urban Idiom, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Picturing Politics, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA
After 1968, The High Museum, Atlanta, GA
Recognize, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie, Neuberger Museum of Art, and Westchester County, NY
2007 11th Annual Project Artist Exhibition, Artist Image Resource Center Pittsburgh, PA
Aqua Miami/Wynnwood, Miami, FL
For the Love of the Game, Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT
Pulse Art Fair, New York City. New York, NY
2006 Black Alphabet, Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Lands of Freedom, Generator Project Gallery, Dundee, Scotland
Frequency, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
2005 Race (Enter Personal Politics), Athica Contemporary Museum, Athens, GA
Current: African-American Video Art Today, Cheekwood Museum, Chattanooga, TN
2004 Invisible (silence), Curated by Sanford Biggers, School 33. Baltimore, MD
Veni Vedi Video II, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
Self-Portraits, Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit, MI
11th San Francisco Art Institute Film and Video Festival, San Francisco, CA
2003 Rising Voices, District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, D.C.
AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, & FELLOWSHIPS
2022 Moss Center for the Arts, Virginia Tech Arts Residency, The Cube
The Nicholson Project Artist in Residence, SE, Washington DC
The Smithsonian Artist Residency Fellowship
2017 John S. Guggenheim Fellowship Recipient, New York, NY
Hirschhorn Award Honoree, Washington D.C.
Moving Image Acquisition Award, New York, NY
2016 USA Joyce Fellow, United States Artists Fellowship Awardee, Chicago, IL
2014 Yaddo Residency, Saratoga Springs, NY
2012 Alumni New Works Program Resident at Headlands Center for the Arts residency, Sausalito, CA
Jakmel Ekspresyon Community Arts Residency, Jacmel Haiti
2010 Headlands Center for The Arts, Artist in Residence Program, Sausalito, CA
2008 Creative Communities Initiative Grant (Creative Community Foundation), Washington, D.C.
2005 Center For Teaching Excellence Grant, University of Maryland
Vermont Studio Center Full Award Fellowship
2002 University of Maryland David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora Fellowship Recipient (2002-2003)
2001 Diversity Fellowship, University of Maryland (2001-2003)
Sadat Peace Art Competition 2nd Place
1997 Artist Trust GAP Grant Award Seattle, WA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2018 Jefferson Pinder and the Art of Black Endurance by Isaiah Matthew Wooden, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, MIT Press
Double Consciousness: A Conversation with Jefferson Pinder by Laura Roulet, Sculpture Magazine
How to Remember in America by Niama Safia Sandy, Sanguine Gallery
Ghostlight: Race and Representation at the Figge Art Museum with Jefferson Pinder by Mariah Shevchuk, Sanguine Gallery
2015 Onyx Odyssey, Exhibition Catalog, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
The New[New] Corpse, Green Lantern Press, Chicago, IL
Action, Exhibition Catalog, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, PA
Fade to Black by Jordana Saggese, The International Review of African American Art
COLLECTIONS
Studio Museum of Harlem, NY
Museum of African American History and Culture Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
US State Department, Art in Embassies program University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
University of Maryland, Union Gallery, College Park, MD David C. Driskell, College Park, MD
Henry Thaggart, Washington, D.C.
Jack Drake, Birmingham, AL
Larry Frazier, Washington, D.C.
Peggy Cafritz, Washington, D.C.
Dr. Darryl Atwell, Washington, D.C.
LECTURES AND CONVERSATIONS
2022 “It’s the Satire that kills the serpent” The Art of Racial Irony w/ Richard Powell, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL
Visiting critic, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
Chicago Humanities Festival, Public/Enemy, Lecture at University of Chicago, Logan Center, Chicago, IL
Visiting Lecturer, Northwestern University MFA Program, Evanston, IL
2021 Yale/Goat Island Archive Presentation sponsored by Theatre Magazine
Cloud Salon Presentation, The New School, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
2020 Fire and Movement Revisited, Diverseworks, Houston, TX
2018 The Inertia Cycle and the Art of Social Engagement, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Visiting Artist Lecture, University of Texas, Arlington, TX
Visiting Artist Lecture, Cornish College of Arts, Seattle, WA
RADIO SHOWS
2014 Euan Kerr, “Pinder’s Somali Runners Adds Speed to Northern Spark”, NPR
2011 Cathy Byrd, “Cathy Byrd Talks Art with Jefferson Pinder”, Fresh Art International
2008 Allison Keyes, “National Portrait Gallery Hosts Hip-Hop Exhibit”, NPR
Andrew Hiller, “Graffiti at the Portrait Gallery”, WAMU Metro Connection NPR Affiliate
SELECTED REVIEWS
2018 East City Art Reviews: Moving Visuals at the David C. Driskell Center, Eric Hope, East City Art
2017 ‘Ghost Light’ exhibit kicks off a first for the Figge Art Museum, Amanda Hancock, Quad City Times
Colored Entranced: The Figge’s “Jefferson Pinder: Ghost Light” Explores Race Through Different Lenses, Emma Farber, River Cities Reader
2016 The Smithsonian’s African American museum – a monument to respectability politics Steven Thrasher, The Guardian
Review: The Smithsonian African American Museum Is Here at Last. And It Uplifts and Upsets, Holland Cotter, New York Times
What the Smithsonian’s African American Museum Means to Chocolate City, The Atlantic
The African American Museum’s Art Collection Doesn’t Forget D.C. Artists, Kriston Capps, Washington City Paper
Review: Jefferson Pinder/Hyde Park Art Center, Luke Fidler, New City Art
Other Worlds, Other Stories, Kriston Capps , Washington City Paper
1999 Blackout: Images from an Assimilated Negro, Ann Fahey, Art Papers AWARDS