b. 1960, Tupelo, Mississippi, USA; lives and works Los Angeles, USA

Arthur Jafa is an artist and, filmmaker, and cinematographer whose work explores the poetics, politics, and power of Black life and representation. Working across moving image, photography, sculpture, and installation, Jafa constructs visceral assemblages that fuse found footage, digital fragments, and original material into immersive, affective experiences. His practice asks how a specifically Black visual language might equal the emotional intensity and transcendence of Black music.

Rooted in his upbringing in the Mississippi Delta during the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement, Jafa’s work draws from the contradictions of that time. The joy and trauma, spectacle and intimacy, beauty and brutality. He mines popular culture, history, and his personal cataloguearchiveto create a cinematic flow of images that embody the complexity of Black experience. From his early cinematography for Daughters of the Dust (1991) to acclaimed video works such as APEX (2013) and Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death (2016), Jafa has continually expanded the language of montage as a form of witnessing. His projects often blur the boundary between historical document and contemporary image, combining found materials with digital manipulation to uncover the frequencies and emotional truths embedded in visual culture. Jafa’s work is an ongoing act of seeing. It bears witness to the simultaneity of violence and grace, fragmentation and transcendence that defines Black experience in the modern world.

Arthur Jafa has exhibited internationally with recent solo exhibitions including GLAS NEGUS SUPREME, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2025); HARDCORE / LOVE, Conditions, London (2025); Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death, E-Werk, Luckenwalde (2025); Works from the MCA Collection, MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2024); Unrest, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, University of Melbourne (2023); RHAMESJAFACOSEYJAFADRAYTON, OGR Torino (2022); The White Album, 5 West 127th Street, New York (2022); Live Evil, LUMA Foundation, Arles (2022); Love Is The Message, the Message Is Death, Warrnambool Art Gallery, Victoria (2022); Glenstone Museum, Maryland (2021); MAGNUMB, The Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk (2021); Dinosaur Fried Chicken Man, Cahiers d’Art, Paris (2021); A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions, Fundação de Serralves, Porto (2020); Love is the Message, The Message is Death, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (2020); Love is the Message, The Message is Death, Palazzo Madama, Turin (2019); A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019); and A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Sharjah Biennial (2025); Body and Soul, Bourse de Commence: Pinault Collection, Paris (2025); Days of Re-Entry, CAC Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2024); The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Cincinnati Art Museum (2024); Summer Show, curated by Philippe Parreno, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (2024); If not now, when?, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague (2024); Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2024); Improbable Anagrams: Works from the Serralves Collection, Museu Fundação Serralves, Porto (2024); The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2024); and Cinema Galleggiante (Floating Cinema) festival, Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection, Venice (2024). Jafa’s films have been recognised with numerous awards including the Golden Lion Award, 58th Venice Biennale (2019) and Best Documentary, Black Star Film Festival (2015).

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