Jewel Ham
Fall 2024
Current Resident - Public Programming
Jewel Ham is the Fall 2024 Current Resident. Her artwork was included as an 11x19 insert in the direct mail package of ads and coupons received by nearly 13,000 households in zip code 98118. This incredibly diverse region includes neighborhoods like Columbia City, Seward Park, and Rainier Beach.
Ham created the work as affirmations of the beauty, fury, and fullness of Black life. “we don’t need no water” references Shirley Chisholm's campaign slogan "Unbossed and Unbought" - feeling especially timely as we work to navigate strategies of liberation against a continued backdrop of political unrest.
If you live in 98118, post your copy on Instagram by tagging @blackembodiments and #CurrentResident
Images:
Above (exterior print): No Crumbs
Below (inside spread): we don’t need no water
Current ResidentAbout Jewel Ham
Jewel Ham is a multidisciplinary visual artist, curator, and educator interested in using her practice as a means of reparation. With attention to the unapologetic wit and innovation inherent to the Black interior, she approaches narrative portraiture as an act of resistance.
She is a Summa Cum Laude Fine Arts graduate from Howard University, with interest in reimagining liberation, particularly through lenses of wellness and embodiment. As a Taurus, her creative process is largely influenced by her interests in aesthetics, pleasure, and sensuality. These elements, along with personal and community histories, assist in visualizing emotional realities that often accompany various facets of everyday Black life.
Jewel has had four solo exhibitions to date, all taking place in historical spaces within the Black community. Her solo exhibit “i said what i said” was held at Stony Island Arts Bank, an archival library and museum reimagined by Theaster Gates; while her solo “keep it cute” was the inaugural exhibition at Cierra Britton Gallery, the first all womxn of color gallery in New York City.
Jewel’s work has formally appeared in a variety of group shows and publications worldwide. She continues to develop her practice in harmony with her community and personal alchemy.
InfoAbout Current Resident
Current Resident commissions black artists to create a unique work of art that will be mailed to all residents of distinct Seattle zip codes. This public art project is inspired by the data collection and distribution processes of direct mail service providers that businesses (and politicians) use to solicit new customers—the "Current Resident" mailers are typically addressed to.
The Black Embodiments Studio purchases ad space in the same glossy, colorful direct mail packets that residents already receive every week with the goal of generating unexpected moments of encounter with black artists and their works. In the process we aim to push the practice of “public art” and the idea that “art should be accessible” to their limits. What if we simply sent free black art to as many people as possible?
Past Programs