bold | MTSU Foundations

Jordan Casteel is from Denver, Colorado. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, then her Master’s from Yale School of Art. Jordan Casteel’s first solo exhibit was displayed in the Denver Art Museum until August of 2019. The exhibit displayed thirty paintings collectively titled: Returning the Gaze. Jordan Casteel’s paintings create art out of everyday people, specifically Black people. Casteel’s motive is to reveal people who often go overlooked. Now living in New York, Jordan Casteel continues to paint portraits of Black men addressing Black masculinity as a part of her passion for social justice. Jordan is changing the way society views Black men while emphasizing Black culture and its pertinent impact on our society’s larger culture. Jordan gets inspiration from her neighborhood in Harlem, New York, which is still heavily populated by Black Americans. I am drawn to Jordan Casteel’s work particularly because she casts black men beautifully. I enjoy that she does not change the cultural parts of Black Americans to place them in her art. The Black men she paints are still dressed in their everyday attire. Some of Jordan’s paintings even show Black men naked. These paintings draw attention to Black men’s humanity. In Jordan’s paintings, it is very apparent that Jordan Casteel focuses on the people who surround her, people who she sees and finds a home in. The environment of the paintings, the clothing on the men, the objects in the paintings can all be identified as pieces of black culture.