Each month, join MoAD staff members as we visit some of our favorite artists in their studios to see what they’re currently working on and how their work has changed in recent years. This is a rare opportunity to hear from artists directly from their studios. We follow all talks with an audience Q&A.

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Ayana V. Jackson uses extravagant and assertive self-portraits to create counter-narratives that respond to the visual representation of the Black body throughout history.

By using her lens to deconstruct 19th and early 20th-century portraiture, Jackson questions photography’s authenticity and role in perpetuating socially relevant and stratified identities. Her practice maps the ethical considerations and relationships between the photographer, subject, and viewer, in turn exploring themes around race, gender, and reproduction.

Her work examines myths of the Black Diaspora and re-stages colonial archival images as a means to liberate the Black body.

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