Artist Statement

In Jamaican patios "running a boat" refers to a social gathering where friends, family and neighbors collectively contribute to an activity such as preparing a feast or addressing a need. "Running A Boat" features a selection of work from Jamaican, American multidisciplinary artist, educator Jesse Wright whose work serves as an ongoing poetic meditation on displacement, migration and scripture. Hope, aspiration, strength and longing are all depicted giving attention to the complexity of humanity. This layered visual language speaks to a diverse reverence to a longing for home physically and spiritually. In response to Kitchen Theater’s invitation, Wright has extended the invitation to various community members over the course of January and February to “run a boat” in a feast of experiences celebrating and shining a light on Jamaican culture throughout diaspora including musical performances and roundtable discussions.

Jesse Wright Biography

Jesse Wright is an interdisciplinary artist, instructor whose work serves as an ongoing poetic meditation on displacement, migration and scripture. His visual approach references his blended Jamaican American heritage. The work is layered and fragmented, shifting from figurative elements to painterly gestures, from collage to culture specific patterns forging visual circuits between ancestral narratives and present-day experiences intertwined with the spirit’s journey. Through mixed media paintings, often involving reclaimed materials from the streets, he recalls both urban textures as well as the various materials used across Jamaica’s landscape. The inclusion of language is as much a celebration of the hand painted signs from the island as it is a repurposing of messaging found in cityscape advertisements. Wright often uses his maternal relatives as archetypes of migration. Hope, aspiration, strength and longing are all depicted giving attention to the complexity of humanity. This visual language speaks to a diverse reverence to a longing for home physically and spiritually. Wright’s practice also includes projects related to community engagement and global humanitarian initiatives.
 

Wright received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and Middlesex Polytechnic in England. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions including Passaic County Art Center, Hawthorne, NJ; Newark Historical Society, Newark, NJ; Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ; Kean University, Union, NJ and Shore Institute of Contemporary Arts, Long Branch, NJ; Latchkey Gallery, New York, NY. Large scale commissioned murals can be seen in Terminals A & B at Newark Airport, NJ.