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| Sera Jey | |
|---|---|
| Name | Sera Jey |
| Occupation | Painter, multimedia artist |
Sera Jey is a contemporary visual artist known for large-scale installations and mixed-media paintings that engage with urban narratives and diasporic memory. Her work has been exhibited in major galleries and biennials and appears in public and private collections across several countries. Jey collaborates with cultural institutions and participates in interdisciplinary projects that bridge visual art, performance, and public space.
Jey was born in a coastal city and raised between multiple metropolitan centers, where exposure to figures such as Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Wassily Kandinsky, Yayoi Kusama, and Jean-Michel Basquiat informed her early interests. She attended a prominent arts academy affiliated with institutions like Royal College of Art, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Columbia University, and University of the Arts London for undergraduate and graduate training. During her studies she participated in exchanges with programs connected to Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Centre Pompidou, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Mentors and visiting critics included curators from Serpentine Galleries, Whitney Museum, Les Arts Décoratifs, National Gallery of Art (United States), and LACMA.
Jey began exhibiting in alternative spaces before moving to institutional venues associated with organizations such as Tate Britain, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Kunsthaus Zurich. Her practice intersects with collaborators from Documenta, Venice Biennale, São Paulo Bienal, Berlin Biennale, and Whitney Biennial. She has undertaken public commissions alongside municipal partners including projects similar to those produced by The Public Theater, Arts Council England, National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Time, and Singapore Art Museum. Residencies at studios linked to MacDowell Colony, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Cité internationale des arts, International Studio & Curatorial Program, and Kadist informed her multidisciplinary approach.
Notable exhibitions include solo and group presentations at venues comparable to Hayward Gallery, Museo Reina Sofía, Fridericianum, Hammer Museum, and Palais de Tokyo. Major works by Jey have been acquired or showcased in surveys alongside pieces by Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović, Olafur Eliasson, Kara Walker, and Anish Kapoor. She has contributed site-specific installations to festivals with programming like Glasgow International, Manifesta, Performa, Art Basel fairs in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong, and curated projects for spaces linked to Southbank Centre, Design Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Critical catalogs and monographs published by presses related to Phaidon, Thames & Hudson, MIT Press, Taschen, and Rizzoli document retrospectives and thematic exhibitions.
Jey's visual language combines painterly gesture, collage, and found-object assemblage, drawing lineage from movements associated with Abstract Expressionism, Dada, Pop Art, Minimalism, and Fluxus. Her references include historical practitioners and theorists such as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, and Claes Oldenburg. She cites cross-disciplinary influences from writers and filmmakers represented by Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Jean-Luc Godard, and Agnes Varda, and engages curatorial dialogues with institutions like Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, National Gallery of Canada, and Kiasma. Material experimentation in Jey's work aligns her with contemporary peers associated with Anicka Yi, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Cecily Brown, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby.
Jey has received grants and fellowships from organizations with profiles similar to Guggenheim Fellowship, Turner Prize, Hugo Boss Prize, CalArts awards, and national arts councils comparable to Canada Council for the Arts, Australia Council for the Arts, and Arts Council England. She has been shortlisted for prizes alongside nominees for Prix Marcel Duchamp, Venice Biennale Golden Lion, Whitney Museum awards, and other international honors. Media coverage and critical essays in publications aligned with Artforum, Frieze, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and The New York Times have followed her major exhibitions.
Jey maintains a studio practice while engaging in educational initiatives partnered with universities and museums such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Cambridge University. She supports arts access programs and nonprofit organizations comparable to Community Arts Center, Arts Education Partnership, National Gallery Young Artists Programme, Open Society Foundations, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Her philanthropic activities include mentorship schemes, public workshops, and donations to collections associated with regional museums and cultural trusts.
Category:Contemporary artists