Jordan Casteel Paints a Spectrum of Her Community
Jordan Casteel, Serwaa and Amoakohene, 2019, Oil on canvas. Photo: Jason Wyche. Image courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
In her 2017 inaugural show at Casey Kaplan Gallery, Nights in Harlem , Jordan Casteel’s subjects solely consisted of Black men. Inspired by her meaningful experiences interacting with Black males in Harlem during her residency at The Studio Museum, Casteel extolled Black men, and painted them with full unbounding humanity.
True to her practice, Casteel again drew inspiration from personal experience and her surroundings in her latest show at CKG, The Practice of Freedom. She derived her inspiration from her students at Rutgers University, where she teaches undergraduate painting. Casteel impartially pivoted from Black men and turned her gaze to WOC and their children in personal, authentic settings.
In one particular painting, God Bless the Child, which is discreetly placed at the corner-end of the gallery, there is a woman with child sitting in a New York subway car. The relationship seems maternal, as the woman caringly embraces and smiles at the child resting on her lap. Although Casteel paints the child in a pink hoody with floral patterns, she ambiguously keeps the viewer from discerning the child’s gender by not exposing their face, drawing the viewer’s intrigue.
The Yale MFA graduate photographs her subjects, ponders the pictures, and then oils their essence on canvas, akin to Alice Neel. Casteel then captures the subject’s personality by detailing the patterns on their clothes and descriptively paints their setting, as if she’s paying homage to Faith Ringgold. Like her idols, Casteel has the talent to visually communicate dimensionality in her subjects, distinguishing her as one of contemporary art’s most potent portraitists.
The Practice of Freedom was on view from November 1, 2019 to December 7, 2019 at Casey Kaplan Gallery in Chelsea, NYC.
Jordan Casteel, Lourdes and Karina, 2019, Oil on canvas. Photo: Jason Wyche. Image courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
Jordan Casteel, Noelle, 2019, Oil on canvas. Photo: Jason Wyche. Image courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
Jordan Casteel, Jenna, 2019, Oil on canvas. Photo: Jason Wyche. Image courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
Jordan Casteel, Self Checkout, 2019, Oil on canvas. Photo: Jason Wyche. Image courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
Jordan Casteel, God Bless the Child, 2019, Oil on canvas. Photo: Jason Wyche. Image courtesy the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York.
