Jerry Weems

Born: Coahoma, MS

Lives and works in Los Angeles

 

MFA California State University, Los Angeles

BS Regents College University, New York

 

Jerry Weems is a Los Angeles based visual artist, independent curator, and art educator who embraces his cultural past, and whose work reflects a deep commitment to displaying positive cultural images of African American culture, subverting negative stereotypes. His work pays homage to the many African American men and women whose lives were so unappreciated during their time, telling their stories with simple truth, innocence, and beauty. His intensely autobiographical paintings depict the day to day existence of Blacks in the segregated South, keeping alive memories of a vital part of American history, prompting us to reflect on how this history has led us to the present. His indelible images of African Americans toiling in fields, worshiping and singing in churches, and working in chain gangs are especially powerful because of his own experiences of the dissocial order of the Jim Crow South, and because of his personal witness to its immoral, bigoted and unjust ways.

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

 

2014

A Home, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA 

 

Cultural Aspects, Gallery @ 1820, Los Angeles, CA

 

2013

California Open Juried Exhibition, TAG Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

 

Ontario Open Art Exhibition, Ontario Art Museum, Ontario, CA

 

Drawing and Portraits, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA 

 

2012

Cross Section, DAC Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

 

Faith, Myths, and Legends, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA 

 

Juried Exhibition, LA Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

 

Juried Exhibition, The Ontario Art Museum, Ontario, CA 

 

We Are One, Gallery @ 1820, Los Angeles, CA 

 

2011

Under One Sun, DAC Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

 

I Have A Right, Picture Cultural Art Gallery, California State University Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA 

 

2010

Convergence, DAC Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

 

The Essense of Spring, Gallery @ 1820, Los Angeles, CA

 

2009

reSolve, DAC Gallery, Los Angeles

 

2003

The Innocents, ArtPiece Gallery, Los Angeles, CA