Ayana Vellissia Jackson

www.avjphotography.com & www.maschulo.com

ayana@avjphotography.com

+27.72.385.0928

Exhibition History

2007

African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, Mijares Gallery in conjunction with UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

Selection from AgriDulce (Bittersweet) for “Post Millennial Black Madonna Inferno ”, Skylight Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

Selection from AgriDulce (Bittersweet) for “Post Millennial Black Madonna Paradise”, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Art (MoCADA), Brooklyn, NY

2006

African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, Guadeloupe Arts Center, San Antonio, Texas

African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, Galeria de la Raza curated by San Francisco Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA

Selections from Agua Dulce for “The Shoot Out” Exhibit, African American Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Viajes Personales & African by Legacy Mexican by Birth, Universidad Xavieriana, Bogota, Colombia

Viajes Personales, Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University, Bluefields, Nicaragua

African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth. Franklyn H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center & African Diaspora Institute. New York, NY

2005

Lecture, performance and video screenings, La Fundacion Cultural Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela.

Viajes Personales, exhibition, lectures, performances, video screenings and workshops, Instituto Universitario de Barlovento, Higuerote, Venezuela.

Various lectures, and video screenings, the Colsubsidio Schools of Bogota, Bogota Colombia;

Viajes Personales, exhibition, performance, and workshops, Biblioteca Virgilio Barco, Bogota Colombia

Viajes Personales exhibition, lecture, performance and video screenings, UNAN-Leon, Leon, Nicaragua

Viajes Personales, lecture, performance and video screenings, Universidad Centroamericana, Managua, Nicaragua

Viajes Personales & African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, exhibition and workshop, Banco Central de Nicaragua, Managua, Nicaragua

Viajes Personales lecture, performance and video screenings, CEDIM School of Graphic Design, Monterrey, México

Viajes Personales & African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, exhibition and workshop Binational Center, Monterrey, México

Lecture, performance and video screenings, Universidad Autonomia Ciudad Juarez, Ciudad Juarez México

Viajes Personales & African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, exhibition, workshop, performance and video screening, Teatro La Fe, Ciudad Juarez, México

Lecture, performance and video screenings, Altos de Chavon, La Romana, Dominican Republic

Viajes Personales Museo del Hombre, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Full Circle: A Survey of Hip Hop in Ghana. Visialized Rythem Curated by Peter Hermann Gallery for Afrika Festival. Portsdam, Germany

Rompiendo el Silencio (film transferred to video) for African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth. “Assembly International”, Tara Herbst and Nicolas Siepen for Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Berlin, Germany

African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, exhibited at “Africa’s Legacy in Mexico,” Inter America Foundation, National Council of La Raza, InterAgency Consultation on Race in Latin America. Washington DC

2004

El Negro Mas Chulo: African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth. A Gathering of the Tribes Gallery, New York, NY

Selections from Full Circle. “Indocile Identities”. Amrita Arts for Pool Art Addict, New York, NY

Selections from Full Circle for “Homecoming”. Rush Arts Gallery for Phatfarm Flagship Store, New York New York

Selections from El Negro Mas Chulo. Rush Arts Gallery for Black Fine Art Show. New York, NY

2003

El Negro Mas Chulo. Limbo Café at Centre d’arte Marney Art Center (CAMAC), Marney-sur-Sein, France

Full Circle: A Survey of Hip Hop in Ghana. World Bank Headquarters. Washington DC

Full Circle: A Survey of Hip Hop in Ghana . Art-O-Matic, DC Cultural Development Center, Washington DC

2002

Full Circle: A Survey of Hip Hop in Ghana. New York City Urban Experience, New York New York

Selections from Full Circle for “Women in Art”. New York City Urban Experience, New York, NY Guest Artist. Slide show from Full Circle for Prof. Toliver, English Dept. Hunter College, New York, NY

Publication History

2007

African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth, forward by Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, Unilan Publishing Company

2006

Review, African by Legacy Mexican by Birth Exhibit. Complex Magazine, April/May issue

Interview, African by Legacy Mexican by Birth. Latina.com, April

Review, African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth. Caribbean Life, February 14

Interview/Announcement. New York Post, January 4

2005

Review, African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth. Caribbean Life Newspaper, December 27 2005

Interview, El Tiempo, Culturas. Nov. 3, Bogota Colombia

Interview/Announcement. La Prensa, Revista. Oct 24 Managua, Nicaragua

Review/Announcement. El Diario, Matices Arte y Cultura, Oct. 13, Ciudad Juarez, MX

Announcement. Listen Diario. Oct. 11. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Featured Artist (Selections from El Negro Mas Chulo: Series I). Planet Magazine (Fall Issue 2005)

2004

Cover Art & Contributor (Selections from El Negro Mas Chulo and Full Circle) Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society

Cover art (spine) “Black Sex Yall Liberation and Bloody Random Violets” Burnt Sugar, The Awkestra Chamber, Burnt Sugar Index Publishing

Cover art “Geechee Goddess Hardcore Warrier Soul,” Tamar Kali, Oya Warrior Records Featured Photographer, The Fader Magazine, Issue 22

2003

Contributor (selections from Colorproof), Documentary Film - Afro-Punk: The Rock & Roll Nigger Experience, High Yellow Productions

Featured Artist (Images: 12 selections from Colorproof” Anthem Magazine, Issue #10 2003

Interview (Image: Shae Butter from “Ghana Series,”) Upscale Magazine, June July

2002

Interview (Images: One Mic and Obrafour from Full Circle), Trace Magazine, Issue #40

BIO:

Known for approaching her subjects in a manner that is equal parts personal, technical, and intense, Ayana Vellissia Jackson's images provide viewers with compelling glimpses of a human condition that overflows borders.

Ms. Jackson’s present projects examine virtual maroon societies and spaces created to accommodate complex identities birthed by a rapidly expanding global community. Her work on Hip hop and punk communities erase lines between socio-cultural anthropology, reportage, and fine art fields.

Full Circle: A Survey of Ghana Hip Hop and subsequent studies of Cuban and Turkish-German hip hop present international hip hop as a borderless society. Likewise, Colorproof: People of Color in Punk and Rock, expresses the idea that contained in the socio-political attributes of these communities is an explicit critique of mainstream, Americanized societies, a critique ultimately expressed through the formation of identities that are neither nationalist nor ethnic.

After completing studies at Spelman College, in Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Jackson moved to Miami, Florida, dividing time between corporate work and freelance photography. 2001 took Ms. Jackson to Africa where she spent seven months between Ghana and South Africa working in HIV/AIDS prevention. During this time she developed the first installment of her international Hip Hop study. In early 2002 she moved to New York to edit and exhibit “Full Circle,” the first collection of this study. “Colorproof” followed during late 2002 while she worked for New York and California based publications including Fader, Anthem, Russel Simmons One World, and Trace Magazines. Summer 2003 saw the first installment of El Negro Mas Chulo: African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth a collaborative project with writer/artist Marco Villalobos. Mexico’s community of African descendants is presented to us through a creative interplay of Photography, film, and music.

Ms. Jackson’s invaluable perspective in honestly assessing the state of world culture is perhaps what draws patrons such as The World Bank to seek her work for its private collections. Ms Jackson presently divides her time between New York, USA, and Berlin, Germany.

Artist Statement:

Creating images that counter one sided media projections of Africa and her Diaspora is crucial. The “dollar a day”, flies around the eyes, pot bellied, starved child presentation that has been promoted globally has negatively impacted the way we see Africa and our relationship to her. Likewise lack of information on African descendant communities in the Americas has widened the gap between related communities across borders.

I focus my lens on the many branches of a quite extensive family tree. From Ethiopia to Mexico, Ghana to Nicaragua, I have tried to create a family album that celebrates Africa and her many faces. It is evident that the poverty line is highlighted by the color line and that there is widespread underdevelopment and disenfranchisement of Africans throughout the world. While this may be the background to certain images, I try to bring diversity, dignity, self-awareness, and activism to the foreground.

It is imperative to keep a healthy relationship with the continent and her children in exile. Without doing so we miss the intercultural exchange and become further isolated from each other which I believe prolongs the large-scale marginalization of African descendant communities globally. I have therefore, armed myself with the camera and joined the fight to increase visibility of African descendant communities worldwide.

In addition to exhibiting my photographic and film works, I facilitate intro photography workshops with African descendant youth throughout Latin America. My aim is to encourage more documentary projects on the Diaspora done from the first person perspective. I have conducted workshops in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Dominican Republic and the US.

–avj06