IAS & Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos Galleries will be closed Dec. 21, 2024–Jan. 1, 2025.
A deep commitment to addressing the abuses of the American criminal justice system drives sumell’s art practice, as exemplified by her eleven-year collaborative project with the late Herman Wallace, one of the former Angola 3 prisoners, entitled The House That Herman Built.
Jackie sumell’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the US and Europe including at Project Row House, Houston; the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore; Royal College of Art, London; Artist’s Space, New York City; Akademie Schloss-Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany; St Etienne Biennial, France; Alternator Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia; Prospect 1, New Orleans; and ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany. Her residencies and awards include 2017 Blade of Grass-David Rockefeller Fund Joint Fellow in Criminal Justice, 2016 Robert Rauschenberg Artist-As-Activist Fellowship, 2015 Eyebeam Project Fellowship, and 2008 Akademie Solitude Fellowship. An ardent public speaker and prison abolitionist, sumell has lectured in colleges and universities around the US. sumell’s work explores the intersection of creative practices, mindfulness studies, social sculpture, and the principles of The Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
Gina Dent an associate professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and Legal Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests include Africana studies, legal theory, and popular culture. She is the editor of Black Popular Culture (The New Press, 1998).
