Northern National Art Competition

This year’s show will be juried by Jalessa Johnston, an interdisciplinary artist, educator and curator currently living and working in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MA from the University of Bergen in Norway. Her interdisciplinary art practice explores the ruptured space between the subjectivity and objectivity of the Black female body. She has been the recipient of the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Centrum’s Emerging Artist Residency, Open Signal’s New Media Fellowship, Performance Works NW Alembic Artist Residency and an Artist Trust Fellowship Award. Jaleesa also works as Curatorial Coordinator in the Curatorial Department at the Portland Art Museum, where she initiated and curates an ongoing exhibition series titled Conductions: Black Imaginings. Her curatorial interests and research include the residual imprint of ephemeral works in institutional spaces, with a focus on Black performance work.