Richard-Jonathan Nelson
My works motivation is to expand modern definitions of Black existence through the boundless imaginative possibilities within speculative fiction. Through textiles, video, photography, and makeup I reinterpret the Black body not as a simple caricature of identity but as an undiscovered impetus for cultural evaluation. By reconstructing Black bodies, culture, and experiences through the prism of science fiction, I make apparent the diversity and nuance Western culture so easily ignores. By referencing the southern gothic roots of my upbringing, I create Afro-surrealist realities where the diaspora’s relationship to reality isn’t limited to a faulty Western gaze.
Science fiction exists in a hypothetical space between imagination, prediction, and speculation of what our world will be in the coming expanses of time. However, rarely is the diaspora present in these alternate dimensions and proto-formed worlds. Never is that more apparent as when I navigate the Bay Area and observe its constant technological advancements and prophecies of our futures. Because of this absence of Blackness in the future- I wonder, how are we further integrating systems of inequality into prospective technological and cultural systems? My work is a visually engulfing reminder that Blackness can and should exist within modern speculation of the future. In addition, the diaspora within its history and culture are a rich well of knowledge very rarely tapped or engaged with as a philosophical system for human advancement.
The larger Western concept of African American identity is that it lacks a true inherited cultural system passed from a place of origin to the present day. Americans believe that Blackness is only recognizable through its relationship to popular culture and entertainment. My work negates that fallacy because of the existence of hoodoo and other inherited unspoken social practices within the American Diaspora. Whether it’s laying of hands, familial folk remedies, or energetic sociocultural wisdom, we as Black people share an unobserved connection to the practices of our ancestors on the continent. My work through the conceptualization of hoodoo as a forgotten technology for cultural defiance and escape reclaims the influence and beauty of those forgotten traditions. By integrating the symbolism, metaphorical sleight of hand, and herbal knowledge of hoodoo to create a visual language that speaks to Blackness but also its concerns regarding freedom, emotion and peace.
Richard-Jonathan Nelson is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses textiles, video, and digital manipulation to create alternative worlds of speculative identity. His work is multi-layered, chromatically intense and mixes images of the natural world with reference to hoodoo, queer culture, and Afro-Futurism. He uses his constructed worlds to examine the overlapping spheres of culturally perceived identity and the emotional memory of what it means to be a queer Black man. Thereby creating a limbic space free from the weighted excepted western cultural reality, and able to examine the unspoken ways systems of power persist.
Born in Savannah, GA (1987) and working in Oakland, CA Nelson received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2017. He has been featured in solo shows at Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, The Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, Johansson Projects, Oakland, and recently acquired by 21c Museums through the 21c Museum Hotels Acquisition Prize as Untitled Art Miami 2022. His work has been featured in New American Painting, chosen as Town & Country’s Best in Show, at Untitled Art Miami, shown in the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, and San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Nelson has held residency at Headlands Center for the Arts and the Studios at Mass MoCA.
Portfolio | Richard-Jonathan Nelson | March 1, 2023 by Elisabeth Biondi
“The lushness of an imagined landscape is ever present, as are images of Black men, some seductive, others troubled or questioning, or filled with longing.”
An Interview with Richard-Jonathan Nelson | by Andreana Donahue
“Through the hybridizing of traditional craft practices like embroidery, weaving, and quilting along with digital art, I reimagine the Black body as a place for futuristic progress.” LINK
Exhibition Review: Richard-Jonathan Nelson | A Lacquered Egress | January 18, 2023 by Emma Ashley
“Richard-Jonathan Nelson’s vibrant textile collages offer playfulness, fantasy, and a nudge towards isolation and restriction – a hint at something trapped in his colorfully woven fabrics.” LINK
