African-Amercan artist Ayana V. Jackson employs her own body and visage to create frank portraits with a sense of irony and a sardonic undertone. Her complex range of works speak to the African-American condition and the global experience of blackness throughout the diaspora. Her works have been exhibited world wide. The artist lives and works in Johannesburg, New York and Paris.

via njcu.edu,
“In her latest series of performance-based photographs, Ayana V Jackson confronts the stereotype and projected desire found in the late 19th and early 20th century imagery of African female subjects. By drawing on images sourced from the Duggan Cronin collection in South Africa, Jackson interrogates the works of unknown photographers practicing throughout the global south at the time, as well as documentation of reconstructed villages and “native” performers that were touring in Europe’s Human Zoos.”
“Archival Impulse” is on view at the New Jersey City University Gallery from January 22 – February 27 2015.