Jabari Jefferson
Jabari C Jefferson is a mixed media oil painter based in Washington DC. His vibrant, multimedia paintings are layered with found mixed media material such as books, fabric, paper, ink, acrylic, and oil paints. His process involves searching local black communities for once-owned items and repurposing them into usable pieces that add to his overall palette of materials. Inspired by ritualistic practices, Jabari believes in the transfer of energy in the materials from their previous owners. The subject of the work is self-education, self-development, and learning self-identity. The goal is to literally communicate what the process of learning looks like. The artist uses the symbolism of a library of books to promote the message of mentally and spiritually enhancing ourselves through reading, reflecting, and learning. The primary intended audiences are black communities due to the lack of representation in these categories of artistic conversation. Jabari’s ongoing body of work, ‘The Library Series’ draws attention to the pursuit of understanding who we are, and transitioning into a deeper more complex way of interpreting the world around us. Metaphorically, we are all living libraries composed of experiences, wisdom, history, and heritage. The aesthetics of a traditional library were instilled in him as a young man by his father, a librarian at the …
Jabari C Jefferson is a mixed media oil painter based in Washington DC. His vibrant, multimedia paintings are layered with found mixed media material such as books, fabric, paper, ink, acrylic, and oil paints. His process involves searching local black communities for once-owned items and repurposing them into usable pieces that add to his overall palette of materials. Inspired by ritualistic practices, Jabari believes in the transfer of energy in the materials from their previous owners. The subject of the work is self-education, self-development, and learning self-identity. The goal is to literally communicate what the process of learning looks like. The artist uses the symbolism of a library of books to promote the message of mentally and spiritually enhancing ourselves through reading, reflecting, and learning. The primary intended audiences are black communities due to the lack of representation in these categories of artistic conversation. Jabari’s ongoing body of work, ‘The Library Series’ draws attention to the pursuit of understanding who we are, and transitioning into a deeper more complex way of interpreting the world around us. Metaphorically, we are all living libraries composed of experiences, wisdom, history, and heritage. The aesthetics of a traditional library were instilled in him as a young man by his father, a librarian at the Library of Congress, and his grandfather, a retired archivist for The National Archives. Having constant access to an impressive assortment of books around him inspired the aesthetic of multicolored vertical compositions and the optic effect they created.
