On View in Milwaukee
Jerry Jordan
Expressions for a New Renaissance
Past Exhibition
June 1, 2023–August 27, 2023
MOWA on the Lake
About the Exhibition
This exhibition is open to the public at MOWA on the Lake, located inside the retirement campus of Saint John’s On The Lake in downtown Milwaukee. Learn more
June 1, 2023–August 27, 2023
MOWA on the Lake
As a Black man living in Madison, Jerry Jordan draws inspiration from his personal experience, but also from the Harlem Renaissance, a spectacular flourishing of Black culture from the 1910s through the 1930s in New York. All cultural disciplines were included: theater, music, literature, and the visual arts. Jordan reflects upon this golden era of Black empowerment and self-confidence and seeks to translate it into the age of Black Lives Matter.
Influenced by Harlem Renaissance painters such as Aaron Douglas and James Porter, Jordan depicts young people inhabiting expansive, almost limitless, pastoral environments that suggest freedom and unfettered possibilities. The figures wear band uniforms quasi-military in style. Originally painted for purely aesthetic reasons, they became more akin to costumes as musical themes emerged, turning the paintings into one-act plays. Their armor represents the protective mental fortitude they don to deal with the racist slights and insults they face on a daily basis.
Jordan’s paintings are personal and biographical. They are about Black people being truly free to live without fear and achieve their greatest potential.
This exhibition is open to the public at MOWA on the Lake, the museum’s community gallery located inside the retirement campus of Saint John’s On The Lake in downtown Milwaukee.
Image: Jerry Jordan, The Drawing Party, 2022 (detail)