Ja’Tovia Gary (b. 1984, Dallas, TX) uses documentary film and experimental video art to address representation, race, gender, sexuality, and violence. Her critically-acclaimed immersive multimedia piece THE GIVERNY SUITE (2020) was the subject of one-person exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, in 2020. Gary’s other films have been screened at festivals including Houston Cinema Arts Festival; BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia; the American Film Institute Festival in Los Angeles; the Montreal International Documentary Festival; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Frameline LGBTQ Film Festival, Edinburgh; New Orleans Film Festival; and Ann Arbor Film Festival. Gary’s work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, the Thoma Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art.
Ja'Tovia Gary
Quiet As It's Kept, 2023
HD and SD footage, 8mm and 16mm film digital transfer, color and black and white, stereo sound, 16:9 (dimensions variable)
running time: 26 minutes
Ja'Tovia Gary
Citational Ethics (Zora Neale Hurston, 1943), 2023
wood, neon and engraved obsidian
overall: 75 x 77 x 65 in. (190.5 x 195.6 x 165.1 cm)
stool: 19 1/2 x 13 x 13 in. (49.5 x 33 x 33 cm)
vanity: 31 x 40 x 26 in. (78.7 x 101.6 x 66 cm)
mirror: 30 x 41 x 9 in. (76.2 x 104.1 x 22.9 cm)
Ja'Tovia Gary
Precious Memories (Tower), 2020
HD and SD video from 16mm film on 3 CRT monitors, acrylic, dried cotton, moss, dried Helichrysum
monitors: 90 x 24 1/4 x 18 1/2 in. (2286 x 61.6 x 47 cm)
Edition 1 of 2, + 1 AP
Ja'Tovia Gary
Precious Memories, 2020
HD video and SD video from 16mm film on 3 CRT monitors, acrylic, dried cotton, moss, dried Helichrysum, upholstered recliner chair, carpet, wood and glass table, framed photograph, table lamp, 2 stage lamps
monitors: 90 x 24 1/4 x 18 1/2 in. (2286 x 61.6 x 47 cm); installation: dimensions variable
Edition of 3, + 2 APs
Ja'Tovia Gary
An Ecstatic Experience, 2015 (still)
single-channel SD video, digitized 16mm film, 6 minutes, looped, color/black & white
directed, edited, animated by Ja'Tovia Gary
dimensions variable
Edition of 7, 1 AP
Installation view, Ja'Tovia Gary: THE GIVERNY SUITE (2019), ZOLLAMT MMK / MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, Frankfurt, as part of IDEOLOGIES: Triennial RAY Festival, June 3 - August 8, 2021. Photo: Leonore Schubert.
Installation view of An Ecstatic Experience (2015) in Art on the Stoop: Sunset Screenings, Brooklyn Museum, September 9 - November 8, 2020. Photo: Jonathan Dorado. Courtesy Brooklyn Museum.
Ja'Tovia Gary
Citational Ethics (Saidiya Hartman, 2017), 2020
neon, glass, wire, metal
47 x 47 x 6 in. (119.4 x 119.4 x 15.2 cm)
Edition of 3, +3 APs
Tactile Cosmologies, Installation view, galerie frank elbaz, Paris, February 2 - March 23, 2019. Photo: Claire Dorn.
Ja'Tovia Gary
Giverny I (NEGRESSE IMPERIALE), 2017 (still)
film, 6 minutes, color single-channel video, stereo sound, HD and SD video footage
6 minutes, looped, color/black & white
1920 x 1080, 16:9 aspect ratio, dimensions variable
Edition of 5, 2 APs
Ja'Tovia Gary
THE GIVERNY SUITE, 2019 (still/detail)
film, 39:56 minutes, three-channel installation, stereo sound, HD and SD video footage, color/black & white, 1920 x 1080, 16:9 aspect ratio, dimensions variable
Edition of 5, +2 APs
Ja'Tovia Gary
THE GIVERNY SUITE, 2019
film, 39:56 minutes, three-channel installation, stereo sound, HD and SD video footage, color/black & white, 1920 x 1080, 16:9 aspect ratio
dimensions variable
Edition of 5, + 2 APs
In a new conversation, the artist talks about her new film, her multidisciplinary work, the influence of Toni Morrison, and more.
Contemporary Multi-Media, Tree Sculptures, and Japanese Art to Visit
Ahead of two milestone museum exhibitions later this year, the multidisciplinary artist reveals a new film, Quiet As It’s Kept, in her Paula Cooper exhibition, “You Smell Like Outside…” which opens this weekend.
Interspersing found footage with original interviews, Ja’Tovia Gary makes poetic video works that elucidate the realities of racial injustice — and how the country might change.
