Past Exhibitions

Jasmine Murrell

Ancient Future

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Gallery space featuring an installation of collaged, multicolored, and multilayered tapestries hanging from the white wall on the left, along with an earthwork sculpture protruding from the wall, and more resting on white pedestals on the wooden half of the gallery floor on the right. In the background, hanging from the ceiling in between the white beams of the Wex grid, is a sculpture made of VHS video tape strings and blue light.

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Jun 10, 2022–Aug 14, 2022

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ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact Accessibility Manager Helyn Marshall at accessibility@wexarts.org or via telephone at (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

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Presenting collaged tapestry, drawing, installation, and sculpture, Jasmine Murrell’s most comprehensive US solo exhibition foregrounds the artist’s focus on memory, mythology, representation, and collective care.

The exhibition, Ancient Future, features an iteration of Murrell’s long-term project Immortal Uterus (2007–ongoing) created in response to the Wexner Center’s gallery. The title of the installation references the “immortal,” still-duplicating cervical cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman. The cells were collected from Lacks in 1951 without consent or compensation and developed into the HeLa cell line, which is still widely used for clinical testing and vaccine development.

Inspired by diasporic and ancient techniques—including the art and architecture of the Dogon and Yoruba of West Africa and the Nahua of Mexico—as well as influences from her own community, Murrell’s practice explores the relationship between our environment and the lived experience of Black bodies, specifically Black women. Using commonplace materials to unite the earthy and the metaphysical, the artist’s work reveals, in her own words, “our unconscious associations around the body” while questioning “whom we identify as desirable and valuable.”

This presentation is part of Portal For(e) the Ephemeral Passage, an interdisciplinary exhibition curated by jaamil olawale kosoko that amplifies Black feminist voices in contemporary art and performance. Click here to view the complete lineup.

Sculpture made of dirt in the shape of a fist on a white pedestal in a gallery space. The backdrop is a white wall with drawings of female figures in white frames.

Jasmine Murrell, Ancient Future, 2022, in Portal For(e) the Ephemeral Passage, installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts, June 10-August 14, 2022. Photo: Stephen Takacs.

More about the artist

Jasmine Murrell (b. Detroit, MI) is based in Brooklyn, New York, and has a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MFA from Hunter College. Her works have been exhibited internationally in venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Bronx Museum of the Arts; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, Netherlands; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. She is a former member of artist collective HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN? (also known as the YAMS Collective). Learn more on the artist’s website.

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Exhibitions

Portal For(e) the Ephemeral Passage is organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts and curated by jaamil olawale kosoko in collaboration with all of its programming departments.

PORTAL FOR(E) THE EPHEMERAL PASSAGE MADE POSSIBLE BY
National Endowment for the Arts
New England Foundation for the Arts

EXHIBITIONS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Bill and Sheila Lambert
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Carol and David Aronowitz
Crane Family Foundation
Mike and Paige Crane

FREE GALLERIES MADE POSSIBLE BY
American Electric Power Foundation
Adam Flatto
Mary and C. Robert Kidder
Bill and Sheila Lambert

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR FREE GALLERIES PROVIDED BY
CoverMyMeds
PNC Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
The Wexner Family
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Arts Council
American Electric Power Foundation
L Brands Foundation
Adam Flatto
Mary and C. Robert Kidder
Bill and Sheila Lambert
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Nationwide Foundation
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Pete Scantland
Axium Packaging
CampusParc
CoverMyMeds
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
President Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica Meinhard
Nancy Kramer
Huntington
Lisa Barton
Johanna DeStefano
Russell and Joyce Gertmenian
Liza Kessler and Greg Henchel
Ron and Ann Pizzuti
Joyce and Chuck Shenk
Bruce and Joy Soll
Jones Day