Alex Jackson
Overview
Alex Jackson, The Ambassador of Additivity, 2021
Alex Jackson’s (b. 1993, Milwaukee, WI) practice involves the development of a continually expanding universe, where recurring characters traverse an entangled ecology of color, shadow, form, flatness, and geography, in an effort to find freedom in the building of a new language. Jackson plays with the foundations of perception and meaning encouraging the viewer to question our own observations. Creating a strange and surreal world, the artist brings to focus ideas of placelessness and transition, questioning the metaphorical boundaries of economics, stereotypes, and categorization. Jackson challenges us to question what is actually present versus what we are shown.
Jackson’s works are in the collections of the de Young Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem and Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He has exhibited at institutions including Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Elmhurst Art Museum, and Chazen Museum of Art. Jackson has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and New American Paintings. He has attended residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Yale Norfolk, and the Royal Drawing School at Dumfries House. Jackson has an MFA from Yale University, and a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recent presentations include FOG Design + Art 2024 presenting his Earthgrazer series, Art Basel, Basel, and the exhibition In Their Hands at Jenkins Johnson Gallery in San Francisco.
Works
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See Gate No. 19, 2025 -
See Gate No. 20, 2025
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See Gate No. 21, 2025
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Dasein, 2023
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Rhizome, 2023
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See Gate No. 15, 2023
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Self Portrait as an Earthgrazer (Self Portrait as Tetsuo) (For Otomo), 2023
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The Arrival, 2023
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The Eyes of Tephra, 2023
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The Landing of E (Asteroidea), 2023
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The Return of the Architect, 2023
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The Watcher of the Wake, 2023
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Untitled (Fearful Symmetry), 2023
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Untitled (Fulgurite), 2023
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Untitled (Sun Spot), 2023
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See Gate No. 13, 2022
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.NUR, 2021
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Color Theory for Ghosts, 2021
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Land of See (The Pyrolytic Eye), 2021
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The Ambassador of Additivity, 2021
Press
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Curators' Picks: Art Basel
Artsy, June 18, 2025 -
Alex Jackson's paintings want us to change how we think about space
Daniel Milroy Maher, It's Nice That, March 19, 2019 -
Curator Larry Ossei-Mensah features Alex Jackson as an Untitled Art, Miami Beach Pick
Larry Ossei-Mensah, Untitled, Miami Beach Newsletter, December 12, 2018 -
In Wild Topiary, Alex Jackson Plays with Human Perception in a Wild New Exploration of Color and Meaning
Gerald Sheffield II, Medium, October 23, 2018 -
Alex Jackson
Alex Jackson’s surrealist paintings engage a range of subjects, including mythology, space, and the assembly and deconstruction of identity.Studio Museum in Harlem Collection -
Visiting Artist Colloquium: Alex Jackson
Exhibitions
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In Their Hands
7 Jun - 2 Aug 2025SAN FRANCISCO In Their Hands honors the time, skill, and dedication required to be an artist. The years of training, experimentation, and persistence needed to create something by hand embody...Read more -
Summertime...
Wesaam Al-Badry, Kevin Cole, Dewey Crumpler, Alex Jackson, Wycliffe Mundopa, Gordon Parks, and Raelis Vasquez 8 Jul - 25 Aug 2023Jenkins Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce Summertime..., a cross-generational and multi-cultural exhibition featuring Wesaam Al-Badry, Kevin Cole, Dewey Crumpler, Alex Jackson, Wycliffe Mundopa, Gordon Parks, and Raelis Vasquez. Works...Read more -
Summertime
Gordon Parks, Ming Smith, Alex Jackson, Dewey Crumpler, Lola Flash, Lisa Corinne Davis, Nnenna Okore, Ben Aronson, and Scott Fraser 19 Aug - 10 Sep 2022Read more -
Transcontinental Dialogues
20 Jan - 30 Apr 2022Jenkin Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, is thrilled to present Transcontinental Dialogues , featuring the work of Dewey Crumpler, Wadsworth Jarrell, Alex Jackson, Blessing Ngobeni, and Raelis Vasquez. The exhibition will...Read more -
Alex Jackson
Chrysalis 11 Sep - 20 Nov 2021Alex Jackson’s first solo exhibition in New York, Chrysalis, marks a significant turning point for his practice and development. Emerging from the expanding narrative space he has developed, this body of work explores many propositions set forth over the past six years. Jackson has gained a new sense of clarity. The ethos of his practice is committed to maintaining an expansive and emancipatory space both for the formal conditions of the work, as well as for the intellectual and social imagination. Chrysalis is a new space, engaged in ideas around the fantastic and speculative storytelling. Jackson considers how the methods of world building have opened new ways for him to think about the formal and conceptual conditions of image-making. His imaginative spaces are inspired by history, strategies of liberation and his own experiences. Jackson’s world is not reliant on systems of dominance. A Chrysalis: the shell, the condition the being – enclosed into a single term, it is a stage of transformation from one form to another.Read more
Art Fairs
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Art Basel, Basel
17 - 22 Jun 2025Opening June 17, Jenkins Johnson Gallery is pleased to return to Basel, Switzerland for the 2025 edition of Art Basel. Our presentation this year features...Read more -
Art Basel Miami Beach 2024
6 - 8 Dec 2024Jenkins Johnson Gallery is pleased to participate in the 2024 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach . This year is our largest and most ambitious...Read more -
FOG Design+Art
San Francisco, CA 18 - 21 Jan 2024Jenkins Johnson will present eleven artists of the African Diaspora that include works by Adrian Burrell, Renee Cox, Dewey Crumpler, David Driskell, Lola Flash, Violet...Read more -
Art Basel | Miami Beach
Miami, FL 6 - 10 Dec 2023Jenkins Johnson Gallery will participate in Art Basel Miami Beach, December 8 - 10, 2023 Booth B31. We will feature artists that explore social and political issues of the African Diaspora by connecting past and current moments: Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Wadsworth Jarrell, Gordon Parks, Ming Smith, Patrick Alston, Adrian Burrell, Dewey Crumper, Lisa Corinne Davis, Violet Fields, Alex Jackson, Blessing Ngobeni, Gregory Rick, Enrico Riley, and Raelis Vasquez. Jenkins Johnson Gallery will be participating in the Kabinett sector with a solo presentation of works on paper by Mary Lovelace O'Neal, featuring her iconic Lampblack (1970's) and Desert Women (1990's) series. In the Lampblack drawings she layers black charcoal and pastel, allowing slivers of negative space to invade the surface. These drawings speak to her affair with an "uncluttered minimalist viewpoint", invoking both a cultural and aesthetic sentiment. In Desert Women series, Lovelace O'Neal portrays garments worn in the Sahara Desert in Egypt and the Atacama Desert in Chile. She studied with master printmaker James Lesene Wells and at The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Lovelace O'Neal creates based on feeling and perception, forming moments of fleeting light. Her work is in museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Baltimore Museum, DeYoung Museum, and Brooklyn Museum. She has an upcoming solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in Spring 2024.Read more -
Frieze Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 16 - 19 Feb 2023Jenkins Johnson Gallery was pleased to participate in Frieze Los Angeles 2023 at Booth C8. We presented works by Patrick Alston, Lola Flash, Alex Jackson,...Read more -
Art Basel | Miami Beach
Miami, FL 29 Nov - 3 Dec 2022Jenkins Johnson Gallery were thrilled to participate in Art Basel Miami Beach. The fair took place at the Miami Beach Convention Center from November 29...Read more -
EXPO Chicago
Chicago, IL 7 - 10 Apr 2022Jenkins Johnson Gallery exhibited at EXPO Chicago,which occured April 7-10, 2022. We presented the works of Lisa Corinne Davis, Alex Jackson, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell,...Read more -
Frieze Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 17 - 20 Feb 2022Jenkins Johnson Gallery exhibited at Frieze Los Angeles,which occured Feburary 17-20, 2022. We presented the works of Lisa Corinne Davis, Lola Flash, Alex Jackson, Wadsworth...Read more -
Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami, FL 1 - 4 Dec 2021Jenkins Johnson will present artists who explore social and political issues of the Black Diaspora by bridging historical and contemporary moments: Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell,...Read more -
Frieze London OVR
London, United Kingdom 13 - 17 Oct 2021Jenkins Johnson Gallery was proud to participate in Frieze London OVR 2021. The online viewing room was live from October 13th through October 17th. The...Read more -
The Armory Show
New York, NY 9 - 12 Sep 2021Jenkins Johnson Gallery was pleased to participate in The Armory Show 2021 at the Javits Center from September 9th - 12th. We presented a selection...Read more -
Frieze New York
New York, NY 5 - 9 May 2021Jenkins Johnson presented artists who explore social and political issues of the Diaspora by bridging past and contemporary moments: Wadsworth Jarrell, Gordon Parks, Ming Smith,...Read more -
EXPO Chicago
Chicago, IL 8 - 12 Apr 2021Jenkins Johnson Gallery was proud to participate in EXPO CHGO ONLINE 2021. Our presentation, Reflections, featured the work of Dewey Crumpler, Lisa Corinne Davis, Alex...Read more -
Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami Beach, FL 3 - 6 Dec 2020Jenkins Johnson presented artists who explore social and political issues of the Diaspora by linking past and contemporary moments. To strengthen this connection, we will...Read more -
EXPO Chicago
Chicago, IL 19 - 22 Sep 2019Jenkins Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Expo Chicago at Navy Pier, September 19-22, 2019 in Booth 259. We will present a...Read more