HAIR PAINTING NO. 38
JARRETT KEY
SEPTEMBER 27TH - NOVEMBER 10TH 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER, 6-9PM
Jarrett Key will be showing their 38th Hair Paintings, a set of three sails that were painted on the shores of Margate on August 19th, 2024. If you didn’t get a chance to see Key perform their work live, a film documenting their performance will be on view, alongside still photographs from the event.
Key's practice embodies several modes of production within a single frame. They create objects that draw on the forms, images, and materials found within a sculpture, painting, and performance practice. Key grew up in rural Alabama to the sound of my grandmother, Ruth Mae Giles, singing, "your hair is your strength". Key’s grandmother would quote this reference to Samson and Delilah often. This art practice seeks to memorialize their family history and oral traditions in ways that don’t require traditional literacy. These hair paintings marry performance and visual art through codified movement, tempera paint and a ponytail, straightened with a hot comb. This literal “hairbrush” transcribes the movements and gestures to create a new embodied language. Over the last ten years, this hair painting series has transformed from a way to celebrate their grandma's life to a ritual that keeps her alive and with us.
Special thank you to Inky Durant, Guy Oliver, and Daniel Gemsa for your beautiful help documenting this performance and work.
Jarrett Key (b. 1990, Seale, AL) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Jarrett grew up in rural Alabama and pursued their fine art practice in New York City after graduating from Brown University in 2013. They received their MFA in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2020. Jarrett is represented by 1969 Gallery in New York, where they had their first solo exhibition, From the Ground, Up in March 2022. In 2023, Key completed a 40ft mural commission for HMTX Industries in Norwalk, CT. One of their hair performance paintings was also the NYC Pride Grandstand Backdrop at the 2023 Pride Parade. Key is one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 for Art and Style 2020. Key’s practice embodies several modes of production in one frame. Through form, image, and material, the objects they make integrate a sculpture, painting, and performance practice. Excavating lost stories and the oral histories that define their upbringing in rural Alabama, Key’s work seeks to criticize those historical conditions that are the seeds of contemporary issues in their life, while creating spaces that celebrate beauty, joy and survival.
Key has been featured in exhibitions and residencies at 1969 Gallery, Fierman Gallery, the RISD Museum, La MaMa Galleria, The Columbus Museum, Gallery 67, Swiss House/MGLC, Galerija Kresija, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Caelum Gallery, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Outlet Fine Art, Former Pfizer Pharmaceutical Factory, Secret Dungeon, La Maison D’Art, Shanghai Theater Academy, and East Meet West Gallery, among others.
Key’s work is in the collections of the New York Historical Society, the Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection, the Columbus Museum, Brown University, RISD Special Collection, the Schomburg Center, the Museum of Modern Art Library, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, among other institutions. The Hair Painting Series series has been featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem and at the Harlem Arts Festival in Marcus Garvey Park.
