Born Marion, Indiana, 1978
Lives and Works in Indianapolis, Indiana
EDUCATION
MFA, Studio Art, Mills College, Oakland, California, 2012
BFA, Fine Art in Photography, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2009
BA, Communication Studies, Taylor University, Upland, Indiana, 2002
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
The Empire is Falling, The Contemporary Dayton, Ohio
No Color in the Pages, PATRON, Chicago, Illinois
Rise Up, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France
2020
Third Space, Edison School of the Arts, Indianapolis, Indiana
2019
Mass Awakening, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
No More Tokens, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, California
Left of Center, Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana
Let Us Grow, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France
2018
Nexus, Patron Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2017
One Blood, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, California
Paulson Fontaine Press Residency, Berkeley, California
Remedial Suffering, Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
2016
Burning all illusion, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
Reciprocity, PATRON, Chicago, Illinois
Samuel Levi Jones, The Arts Club, London, England
Samuel Levi Jones, Halsey McKay, East Hampton, New York
48 Portraits (Underexposed), EXPO Projects, Chicago, Illinois
2015
After Fred Wilson, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Talk To Me, Pro Arts, Oakland, California
Unbound, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
2014
Black White Thread, PAPILLION ART, Los Angeles, California
2013
Delete, Los Angeles, California
48 Portraits (Underexposed), Harrison Center for the Arts, Indianapolis
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century - THE REMIX, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan
2022
Past Is Present: Black Artists Respond to the Complicated Histories of Slavery, Herron School of Art + Design Galleries at Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana
Monochrome Multitudes, The SMART Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Samuel Levi Jones & Marie Hazard, Sunday-S Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Wrongs & Rights, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York
Whatever Gets You Through the Night: Selections from the Mott-Warsh Collection, Mott-Warsh Gallery, Flint, Michigan
Continuum, SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California in partnership with Residency Art Gallery and the Kinsey African American Art & History Collection
Skin in the Game, Fulton Market, Chicago, Illinois
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art,Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art,The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at University of California, Davis, Davis, California
2021
Art of California: Greater than the Sum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
New Prints and Editions, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
20 Years Anniversary Exhibition: Part 2, Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, California
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, DeVos Art Museum, North Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois
2020
I Yield My Time, Fuck You, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, California
Paper Pavilions, Arts Road 46, Bloomington, Indiana
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
Duro Olowu: Seeing Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
NEXUS: Contemporary Art From Leading Miami Collections, Lowe Art Museum, Miami, Florida
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, New York
A Summer Like No Other, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
2019
Resilience: African American Artists As Agents of Change, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan
State Your Intentions: New Works in the Weisman Art Museum Collection, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota
On Soft Ground, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona, Florida
Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, El Espacio 23, Miami, United States
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, OSilas Gallery at Concordia College, Bronxville, New York
New Modernism, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, United States
High Anxiety: New Acquisitions, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, United States
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Gallery 360, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Soft Power, 411 Gallery, Columbus, Indiana
We the People: New Art from the Collection, Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York
2018
The Edge of Visibility, International Print Center, New York, New York
Sedimentations, 8th Floor Gallery, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, New York
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Snite Museum of Art, South Bend, Indiana
Sidelined, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of the Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art, Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina
Hot! Hot! Hot!, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, United States
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, Michigan
Reclamation! Pan-African Works from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia
Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press, Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, California
2017
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Excerpt, Studio Museum Harlem, New York, New York
2016
Chicago Invites Chicago, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
Trust Issues, Ronchini, London, United Kingdom
Hard Edged: Geometric Abstraction and Beyond, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, United States
INDEX Roma, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain
A Dark Matter, Tarble Gallery, Eastern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois
2015
Trashed and Treasured, Napa Valley Museum, Napa Valley, California
Theory of Forms, PATRON, Chicago, Illinois
I Like It Like This, S2 Sotheby’s Gallery, New York, New York
The Silence of Ordinary Things, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, California
2014
The History of Technologies, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, California
OPEN, PAPILLION ART, Los Angeles, California
2013
A Basic Measure, Service Employees International Union United Long-Term Care Workers, Los Angeles, California
Transport, Pro Arts, Oakland, California
2012
X Libris, Root Division, San Francisco, California
Baila Con Duende, Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles, California
The Last Show on Earth, Mills College, Oakland, California
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2021
The Sum of Unity, Herron School of Art + Design, Indianapolis, IN
2018
Sidelined, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, New York
PRESS, PUBLICATIONS AND PODCASTS
2021
Cunningham, Nijah, Samuel Levi Jones, Limestone Post, October 19
Carstens, Ian, Paper Pavilions’ Exhibition Looks at Race, Nature, and Public Art, Galerie LeLong and Co., New York & Paris, 2021
2020
Starowitz, Sean, Paper Pavilions, exhibition catalog, 2020
Sargent, Antwaun, Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers, 2020
Staff Reporters, Organization brings traveling art exhibit to schools to inspire students, WISHTV, January 16
2019
Viewpoints, Episode 4: Samuel Levi Jones and Pamela Joyner, Galerie LeLong and Co., Podcast, October 3
What To See in New York This September, Sculpture Magazine, September 5
MUST SEE, Samuel Levi Jones, Artforum, September 3
Ollman, Leah, One artist’s solution to the racial inequities embedded in books: Rip them apart, Los Angeles Times, August 5
Wilson, Michael, Review: Samuel Levi Jones, Galerie LeLong, Artforum, December
Benoit, Guillaume, Samuel Levi Jones at Galerie Lelong and Co., Slash, May 29
Armstrong, Annie, Dallas Art Museum Adds Eight Works to Collection with Dallas Art Fair Acquisition Fund, ARTnews, April 11
Boyd, Oseye, New exhibit at Newfields makes lasting impression, Indianapolis Recorder, March 21.
Grossman, Dan, A Moment of Change and Reckoning at Newfields, NUVO, March 19
Gettinger, Aaron, At the Smart, ‘Solidary & Solitary’ shows individuals progressing Black Art, Hyde Park Herald, February 25
2018
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, E-Flux, December 19
Sayej, Nadja, Edge of visibility: celebrating artwork with hidden messages, The Guardian, November 19
Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen, Samuel Levi Jones, Podcast, November 10
Ollman, Leah, Keep Looking: Samuel Levi Jones Speaks with Leah Ollman, Art in Print, September – October
Valentine, Victoria L., Whitney Museum Acquired 417 Works Recently, Faith Ringgold, Derrick Adams, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Julie Mehretu are Among the Artists Represented, Culture Type, September 28
Weisbrode, Kenneth and Heather H. Yeung, How We Lost the Sky, The New York Times, July 23
Sussman, Anna Louie, What Sold at Art Basel, Artsy, June 17
The Editors of ARTnews, Samuel Levi Jones at Patron Gallery, Chicago, ARTnews April 12
Chi, Paul, Blu Ivy Bid $10,000 at an Art Auction, and Won, Vanity Fair, March 18
Rodney, Seph, The Political Truths that Ground our Athletic Heroes, Hyperallergic, February 9
2017
Valentine, Victoria L., Artist Samuel Levi Jones is Joining Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles
Projects, Culture Type, October 12
Helmke, Juliet, Pulped Fiction: An Artist Destroys History in Order to Rewrite It, Blouin Modern Painters, May 23
Sargent, Antwaun, Kara Walker, Juliana Huxtable, and More Challenge False White Recordings of Black History, Creators, Vice, April 12
Schwendener, Martha, What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week, The New York Times, January 1
Rodney, Seph, An Artist Gives Us a Vision of the Future Through Books, Hyperallergic, January 10
Sheets, Hilarie M., Samuel Levi Jones Unbinds Fractured History of Justice, Introspective Magazine, January 2
Sargent, Antwaun, Striking Deconstructed Book Paintings Challenge American History, The Creators Project, January 2
2016
9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week, ARTnews, December 20
Pobric, Pac, Three to see: New York, The Art Newspaper, December 20
Lesser, Casey, 20 New York Shows to See Over the Holidays, Artsy, December 20
Helmke, Juliet, Samuel Levi Jones on Raising Consciousness and Standing Rock, Blouin ArtInfo, November 23
Cataldo, Angelica, ‘A Dark Matter’ Artists Discuss Work for ‘Artists-in-Dialogue’, The Daily Eastern News, September 29
Freeman, Nate, EXPO Chicago 2016 Announces Roster for Special Projects Sectors, ARTnews Magazine, August 23
Lesser, Casey, 15 New York Group Shows You Need to See This July, Artsy, June 28
Steadman, Ryan, 10 Things to Do in New York’s Art World Before July 1, Observer Culture, June 28
Lowe, Rhiannon, Ripped, CCQ, April 18
Volkening, Laura, Tearing Up Power One Book at a Time, Samuel Levi Jones at PATRON, Newcity Art, April 1
2015
Winkelman, Timothy, Review: Theory of Forms at Patron Gallery, Hairy Rainbow, December 17
Cristello, Stephanie, Chicago’s Concept-Based Group Exhibitions Show Strength in Numbers, Art Slant, October 20
Cooper, Ashton, Art Incubator, CULTURED Magazine, September 22
Martraire, Maria, Talk to Me: Samuel Levi Jones at ProArts, Daily Serving, September 13
Ollman, Leah, Unbinding The System: Samuel Levi Jones, whose exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem is his first in New York, deconstructs old encyclopedias to set the record straight, Art in America, April
Heddaya, Mostafa, Bookworm: Samuel Levi Jones, Blouin Artinfo, April 7
Willis Blair, Courtney 4 Questions: Samuel Levi Jones, Forbes, March 26
Edwards, Adrienne, Blackness in Abstraction, Art in America, January 5
Keith, Naima and Dana Liss, Artist x Artist: Mark Bradford and Samuel Levi Jones, The Studio Museum Magazine, Winter-Spring
2014
Ollman, Leah, Review: Works of Defiant Beauty (Samuel Levi Jones), Los Angeles Times, November 26
Russeth, Andrew, Samuel Levi Jones Wins Studio Museum’s $50,000 Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, ARTnews, October 27
Dragovich, Sarah, New Works at Recology San Francisco, Art Nerd San Francisco, September 22
RESIDENCIES
2017
Artist in Residence, Paulson Fontaine Press Residency, Berkley, California
2015
Artist in Residence, Pamela Joyner and Fred Giufrida, Sonoma, California
2014
Recology Residency, San Francisco, California
AWARDS
2020
DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award, Indianapolis, Indiana
2017
Sustainable Arts Foundation, San Francisco, California
2014
Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
2012
Vivian and Margarita Stephenson Award, Mills College, Oakland, California
2011
Mills Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Oakland, California
2010
Evelyn V. Staton Fellowship in Fine Arts, Mills College, Oakland, California
2009
Mildred Darby Menz Award, Herron School of Art and Design Indianapolis, Indiana
2008
Junior Bratton Award, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, Indiana
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
de Young Museum, San Francisco, California
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana
JP Morgan Chase Collection, New York, New York
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Missouri
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Madison Art Collection, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Illinois
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
Weisman Art Museum Collection, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York