Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewCasteel extricates her subjects from the inequality and stasis of everyday life in America, and to glorify the multiplicity of Black experience [...] Casteel’s power is to look beyond prevailing socioeconomic or racial narratives; in examining Black existence as lived rather than as trend or news bulletin, she conveys a hopefulness which the white American gaze—with its institutions, values and social systems—still fails to actualise. -- Ravi Ghosh * Elephant *
Casteel’s portraits arrive as a kind of valentine to the city and the people who call it home. Captured candidly, the sitters bring back the magic of casual connections in vivid color. -- Editors * Cultured *
Masterfully skewing perspectives and intuiting luscious, fierce colors, Casteel paints her neighbors in Harlem, her fellow subway riders, and her students at Rutgers University–Newark. -- Cassie Packard * BOMB *
Jordan Casteel’s vibrant colors capture the spirit and humanity of her subjects: black and brown people who have often been excluded from art institutions. -- Jillian Steinhauer * New York Times *
Casteel uses portraiture to connect with the beauty of her communities. -- Sara Rosen * Document Journal *
[This] large-format catalogue powerfully conveys the formidable evolution of [Casteel's] affecting and calmly intense work in the span of just six years. -- Benjamin Sutton * Artsy *
[Casteel's] works contain a commentary on representation [...] of a deeper, essential, and more documentary humanity. -- Nina Wolpow * Brooklyn Rail *
Described as her first major monographic publication, the fully illustrated catalog features nearly 40 paintings from throughout her career -- Victoria Valentine * Culture Type *
Her work, like the offspring of Alice Neel and Kerry James Marshall, makes you feel both intimately familiar with her subjects and like you’re seeing them for the first time. -- Taylor Dafoe * Artnet *
Jordan Casteel has become one of the most interesting painters of her generation, working predominantly in the medium of portraiture. Casteel’s subjects are people of color...and they are rendered with a kind of beautiful vulnerability that is both honest and rare. -- M.H. Miller * T Magazine *
Exploring notions of race, class, and belonging through a humane and documentative approach, in recent years Casteel has risen to be a notable name representing and celebrating the contemporary black experience. Whether they’re full portraits of siblings in their bedrooms or zoomed in features of families on the subway, Casteel offers a fresh perspective of her community’s culture that’s both captivating and freeing. -- Vivien Lee * New York Observer *
Her colossal paintings depict people of color at a scale that makes them impossible to ignore. -- Zoë Lescaze * New York Times *
Jordan Casteel transform snapshots into indelible portraits of her community. -- Caroline Goldstein * Artnet *
