Suzanne Jackson In Nature's Way...

On my mind all year, in this work for Glasgow.
We should live our lives - in Nature's way. Currently, we are - in Nature's way.
This exhibition is dedicated to centuries of women who have washed clothes and bathed themselves in all sorts of vessels, creeks, streams, rivers, oceans, and in the laundry/bath house that is now The Modern Institute.
Suzanne Jackson, 2022
Jackson’s home and studio space in Savannah are one. Her everyday living is intertwined with her studio practice, each woven with the other, both equal in providing Jackson a skin in which she can use her surroundings freely. Upcycling is at the core of her practice, which leads Jackson to include found components in her work: man-made or natural objects, varying from produce bag netting and carpet trimmings to seeds and pressed flowers, as well as flakes of peeled paint from her hand, which she recycles and stores for future use. Remnants of household objects are given a new life and reused; “Quick Jack Slid”’ includes elements of a wicker chair, broken by a friend, the item is logged as if a museum object and given a new purpose within the artwork, a body to stabilise the other limbs. Another work, “deepest ocean, what we do not know, we might see?’’, uses paint from the exterior of Jackson’s home, a rich red colour. The work draws on Jackson’s formative figurative works; suggests four visible figures in the foreground, each a distinct form, diverse in colour and surface, gesturing to one another, as if conversing. Jackson is conscious and considerate with her materials displaying them with a past, present and future.
Jackson first moved westward with her mother and father to San Francisco, and then her family continued north to the Yukon Territory. She came of age in Alaska, later returning to the Bay area to study painting and theatre at San Francisco State College and dance in the Pacific Ballet. In 1967 Jackson settled in Echo Park, Los Angeles, attending Charles White’s drawing class at Otis Art Institute. Jackson engaged a community of artist and activist peers – including David Hammons, Timothy Washington, Alonzo Davis, Dan Concholar, Senga Nengudi, George Evans, Gloria Bohanon, Betye Saar and Emory Douglas via her gallery space, Gallery 32. Her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles was held at the Ankrum Gallery in 1972.

Acrylic, acrylic detritus, produce bag netting, carpet edging, laundry lint, D-rings
114.3 x 132.1 x 15.2 cm, 45 x 52 x 6 in

Acrylic, acrylic detritus, Stonehenge and Bogus papers, shredded mail, produce bag netting, carpet trim, string, D-rings
127 x 213.4 cm, 50 x 84 in

Acrylic, acrylic paint scrapings, Buckram/Crinoline, shredded mail, deer netting, textile pieces, wood, D-rings
274.3 x 317.5 x 12.7 cm, 108 x 125 x 5 in

Acrylic, acrylic detritus, wicker chair parts, ribbon, bells, string on D-rings
119.4 x 86.4 x 121.9 cm, 47 x 34 x 48 in

Acrylic, vintage fabrics, buttons, ribbons, string, beads, seeds, thread, old safety pins, curtain lace backing, D-rings
157.5 x 61 cm, 62 x 24 in

Acrylic, acrylic detritus, pressed flowers, paper, burlap, woven braid, D-rings
139.7 x 66 x 12.7 cm 55 x 26 x 5 in

Graphite, Coloured pencil, acrylic wash Drawing on Stonehenge paper
148 x 123.2 cm, 58 1/4 x 48 1/2 in

Graphite, Coloured pencil, acrylic wash Drawing on Stonehenge paper
127 x 119.4 cm, 50 x 47 in
Jackson’s work has featured in institutional exhibitions including ‘Life Model: Charles White and His Students’, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2019); ‘The Sapphire Show’, Ortuzar Projects, New York (2019); ‘West by Midwest’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018–19); ‘Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power’, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2018–19); ‘Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980’, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011–13); ‘Gallery 32 & Its Circle’, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles (2009); ‘Synthesis, Just Above Midtown Gallery’, New York (1974); ‘Directions in Afro American Art’, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca (1974); and ‘Black Mirror’, Womanspace Gallery, Los Angeles (1973).