Arthur Jafa is an American artist. Raised in Mississippi, he studied architecture and film at Howard University, and has been working as a filmmaker and artist for over four decades. He has had a successful career as a cinematographer, working on films including his ex-wife Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, Spike Lee’s Crooklyn, and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Jafa has also directed music videos for musicians including Solange and Jay-Z. In 2005, Jafa stepped away from the art world for a while, re-emerging in 2016 with his spectacular work of video art Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death, which combined and edited disparate found and original footage documenting the Black experience in America. Other notable video works include The White Album from 2018, which won the Golden Lion for best artist at the Venice Biennale.
Arthur Jafa’s extended practice is widely considered to be at the forefront of contemporary art, independent film and cultural theory today. Witnessing, celebrating and cataloguing the deep soul of Black life through images, Jafa has forged a groundbreaking trail in the rich terrain of Black representation.
In his show at Sadie Coles HQ Gallery, Kingly St in London, on until December, Jafa exhibits new paintings and collage, alongside two new video works.
In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Arthur Jafa discuss checking Instagram first thing in the morning, wanting to frown like Roy Rogers, and the universal influence of James Brown.
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