A retrospective exhibition of artist Suzanne Jackson’s work opened recently at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, showcasing a six-decade career marked by an exploration of beauty, hope, and social engagement through art. The exhibition, brought to Boston by organizers from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, traces Jackson’s evolution from the naturalistic forms inspired by her childhood in Alaska to experimental mixed-media installations created in recent years.
Jackson began her artistic journey in the early 1960s in San Francisco, where she studied painting and dance at San Francisco State University. Her early work, deeply influenced by the vast natural landscapes of pre-statehood Alaska, often features blurred, ethereal figures and organic forms evoking a dreamlike quality. After moving to Los Angeles in 1967, she founded Gallery 32, a pivotal space dedicated to advancing Black culture and supporting emerging Black artists such as David Hammons and Betye Saar. The gallery also hosted events that supported the Black Panther Party and other activist causes.
Although her art often projects softness and tranquility, Jackson has emphasized its political significance, asserting that creating works about peace and beauty can represent a form of activism. This ethos was apparent in her 1970 diptych “Wind and Water,” painted amid the social unrest following the 1965 Watts riots. In 1970, Jackson also organized the first exhibition of contemporary Black women artists in the United States, underscoring her commitment to elevating underrepresented voices in the art world.
Jackson’s paintings from the 1960s and ’70s are noted for their evocative use of thin acrylic washes and softly blended earth tones, which invite reflection on themes of humanity, nature, and hope. Works such as “Triplical Communications” (1969) and “There’s Something Between Us” (1972) reveal a blend of figurative and surrealist imagery that addresses connection and resilience. Her 1973 triptych “In A Black Man’s Garden” and the 1974 painting “Animal” further illustrate her capacity to balance serene imagery with hints of underlying tension or warning.
By the 1980s, Jackson had relocated to the California countryside, where she embraced meditation and an even deeper focus on the intersection of humanity and the natural world. Around this time, she began incorporating collage and mixed media, partly influenced by her move to New England in 1987 to pursue a master’s degree in theater design at Yale University. The resulting large-scale abstract collages, such as “9, Billie, Mingus, Monk’s” (2003), pay tribute to African American musical heritage while displaying a playful and experimental approach to materials.
Since 1996, Jackson has lived in Savannah, Georgia, where she teaches at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her recent work has evolved into three-dimensional acrylic sculptures suspended in space, merging painting and sculpture into immersive environments. One notable example, “Crossing Ebenezer” (2017), references a historical episode where hundreds of formerly enslaved people were abandoned by Union troops during the Civil War. This piece, along with her 2021 work “deepest ocean, what we do not know, we might see?,” exemplifies Jackson’s continuing engagement with history, memory, and wonder.
The exhibition presents Jackson’s trajectory as a persistent inquiry into the power of art to transform, heal, and inspire—demonstrating a lifetime commitment to intertwining aesthetics with social consciousness.