Jovan C. Speller | Nurturing, and Other Rituals of Protection

Jovan C. Speller’s MAEP exhibition will aestheticize the security of a community too often targeted, misunderstood, and misrepresented in public spaces. From the creation of a sound installation, to scenes of protection across the gallery walls surrounding the viewer, the artist will depict the story of fear and hope for Black families in every American community.

This exhibition is part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, now located in the U.S. Bank Gallery.

 Artist Talk & Film Screening (CANCELLED)
Sunday, May 22 - 2:00PM - Pillsbury Auditorium
Join Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program artist Jovan C. Speller in conversation with Gabrielle E. W. Carter, multi-disciplinary artist and cultural preservationist, and moderator author Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara as they discuss Speller’s Nurturing, and Other Rituals of Protection and screen “The Seeds We Keep”. Moving beyond the narrative of a single story of Blackness, they will explore ancestral legacy and creating spaces of respite, safety, and community representation.
Part narrative essay, part documentary, The Seeds We Keep lifts up a love song for the land, for generational wisdom and for the vital questions that come with making your place in it. In the film, cultural preservationist Gabrielle E. W. Carter unfolds a lush vision of what is and what could be in her meditation on Black land ownership and seed saving.
 

About the Artist
Speller is a Minnesota-based artist originally from Los Angeles. She is a recipient of a 2018 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, a 2018 Next Step Fund Grant, and a 2016 Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship. She completed a residency at Second Shift Studio Space in St. Paul and was awarded the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Minnesota Art Prize in 2021. Speller is represented by Aspect/Ratio Projects in Chicago. She holds a BFA in photography from Columbia College, Chicago, and studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her artwork, I Just Came Across the River, 2017, (2020.57) was acquired by Mia in 2020.

 Gallery Hours
Tuesday- Wednesday: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday: 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Friday- Sunday: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Image:  "In Lotties Living Room", 2020 Installation view for High Visibility at Plains Art Museum photo by Cody Jacobson, Plains Art Museum