In his ongoing “An African American Expression” or
African Contemporary series, Jonathan Paul Jackson
creates a visionary and imaginative body of work
inspired by his personal exploration and study of the
mythology and history concerning African sculpture.
As a visitor to the University Museum at Texas
Southern, Jackson was excited and inspired by the
relationship between the traditional African sculptures
on display, the art of Dr. John Biggers and his
students. This collection serves as a sort of touchstone
for the artist, revealing paths of creative possibilities
while also underlining the importance of African and
African American Art collections in historically Black
colleges and universities.
For many of the works, Jackson has taken the image of
the sculpture, printed it out using his large scale
printer, and collaged the now monumentally scaled
image of the sculpture onto the canvas, before adding
paint and other materials to animate the surface of the
work. This combination of open sourcing of imagery
and the printing of the digital image take advantage of
the accessibility of museum collections and the
inclusion of new technologies into art making.
Meanwhile, Jackson’s gestural mark making
underscores his personal excitement for the forms,
shapes, images and histories of the sculptures
themselves.