Channeling Black & Blues | Seitu K. Jones

Since the 1970s, Seitu K. Jones has traveled through West Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the United States learning and documenting boat building practices. For Jones, boats are powerful vessels for aesthetic experimentation, environmental activism, and public engagement.

Drawing on folk traditions closely tied with Blues music, Jones uses the practice of call and response to create works of art that are sources of community pride. Whether muddy, stormy, or troubled waters, Jones deftly navigates rising tides and eroding shorelines, modeling respect and love for our natural resources.

Channeling Blacks & Blues features sculpture, paintings, photographs, drawings and archival objects that trace Jones’s decades-long study of Black boat culture, with a focus on the aesthetics of Blues that shape his practice.

Guest Curators: Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski and Alexandra Nicome

Image: Seitu K. Jones, She Can See Freedom (Tribute to Hughie Lee-Smith), 1985, acrylic on masonite