Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe at Tufts University Art Galleries

Tomashi Jackson, Here at the Western World (Professor Windham’s Early 1970s Classroom & the 1972 Second Baptist Church Choir), 2023. Property of a Private Collection, Boston. Photo courtesy of Tilton Gallery.
Tomashi Jackson, Here at the Western World (Professor Windham’s Early 1970s Classroom & the 1972 Second Baptist Church Choir), 2023. Property of a Private Collection, Boston. Photo courtesy of Tilton Gallery.

Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe
Tufts University Art Galleries
July 30 – December 8, 2024

Deeply committed to social justice, Cambridge-based artist Tomashi Jackson (SMACT ’12) creates vibrant prints, paintings, videos, textiles, and sculptures that powerfully explore systemic inequities found throughout U.S. history. Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe is the first exhibition to present the evolution of Jackson’s work over the past nine years in which she fuses deep historical research with artistic strategies of color and layering to illuminate underrecognized patterns of activism, resistance, oppression, and societal advances.

Influenced by California muralist traditions, Jackson’s work scrutinizes the mechanics of societal power and recognizes triumphs in civil rights advocacy and the empowerment of communities of color. Featuring artworks inspired by communities and individuals in New York, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Colorado, and Athens, Greece, Across the Universe demonstrates Jackson’s ongoing commitment to investigating under recognized histories and visualizing recurring patterns in American democracy.

Across the Universe is organized by Miranda Lash, Ellen Bruss Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and at TUAG with Dina Deitsch as organizing curator. A full-color catalogue featuring essays by Lash, Robin D.G. Kelley, Liz Munsell, Megan O’Grady and Zoé Whitley, and an interview conducted by Larry Ossei-Mensah with Tomashi Jackson and Nikita Gale is currently available.

At TUAG, Across the Universe is generously supported by the Wagner Foundation, Girlfriend Fund, and Steven, A98, A27P and Amy J98, A27P, Horowitz.

Generous support for TUAG programming is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Tomashi Jackson, Guns and Butter (Nia in The Morehouse Creed), 2022. Courtesy the Artist and Tilton Gallery.
Tomashi Jackson, Blessed Be the Rock (1920s Dearfield Group, 1970s Ruth Flowers in The Little Rectangle, & the 1972 Second Baptist Church Choir), 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist and Tilton Gallery.

Related Programming

Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe Reception
September 18, 2024 from 6-8pm
Aidekman Arts Center / Medford

Join the TUAG for a public reception for Jackson’s solo exhibition Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe with music by DJ TROY Frost. Presenting the first mid-career retrospective of the Cambridge-based artist, Across the Universe brings together vibrant prints, paintings, videos, textiles, and sculptures from Jackson’s past decade of work that powerfully explore systemic inequities found throughout U.S. history.

Visiting Artist Talk: Tomashi Jackson
October 4, 2024 from 12-2pm
Anderson Auditorium / SMFA at Tufts

Deeply committed to social justice, Cambridge-based artist Tomashi Jackson (b. Houston, TX, 1980) creates vibrant prints, paintings, videos, textiles, and sculptures that powerfully explore systemic inequities found throughout U.S. history.

Abolitionist Practices: Then + Now
October 23 from 6-8pm
Alumnae Lounge, Aidekman Arts Center / Medford

Presented in conjunction with Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe, this panel explores the histories and legacies of abolitionist practices today. Just as Jackson’s work reckons with the overlooked portions of American history and the long shadow of slavery, so too do these area partners contend with abolitionist thought to correct the ongoing impact of slavery in contemporary society.

Organized in collaboration with the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University and the office of Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence, speakers include exhibiting artist Tomashi Jackson, Nia K. Evans and Cierra Michele Peters from the Boston Ujima Project, the Nation’s first democratically governed investment fund, Dayna Cunningham, Dean of Tisch College for Civic Life at Tufts University, and Laura McDonald, Manager of Collections, Tufts University Art Galleries.

Workshop: Community Crocheting
December 8 from 2-4pm
Aidekman Arts Center / Medford

Join the TUAG Student Programming Committee for a crochet workshop with Leslie Rogers, SMFA Professor of the Practice in Sculpture. Taking inspiration from Tomashi Jackson’s use of fibers, knitwear, and woven elements in Across the Universe, Rogers will teach participants some basic techniques. Together, we can knit community via shared artmaking.

Leslie Rogers is an interdisciplinary artist based in Detroit and Boston, and a Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Art at Tufts University. Her background is in puppetry and quilting, and her degrees are from the Maryland Institute College of Art (BFA) and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Sculpture & Extended Media (MFA).

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