Artist Jordan Casteel gestures to her painting Benyam (2018) on view at the Cantor Arts Center’s presentation of ’Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze.” ( Courtesy of the Cantor Arts Center )
Casteel creates portraits that connect viewers to her neighbors who became her friends, and her friends who became like family. Jordan Casteel, widely recognized as one of the most innovative emerging artists working today, brought her first solo museum exhibition, Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze , from her hometown museum in Denver to the Cantor Arts Center. This is the second and final venue for the exhibition, which is on view through Feb. The exhibition features 29 paintings made in the last five years, many featuring people Casteel encountered while walking around her Harlem, New York, neighborhood. Upon returning to her studio, photographs she took of her subjects became the source material for electrically colored, large-scale painted portraits that chronicle Casteel's personal observations of the human experience. "Her monumental, exquisitely tender paintings remind us that everyday existence can also be extraordinary," said Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, assistant curator of American art at the Cantor. The title of the exhibition, Returning the Gaze , acknowledges the many levels of engagement within Casteel's work.
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