{{Short description|American artist (1966–2022)}} '''Jayson Keeling''' (1966–2022)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/jayson-keeling?all/all/all/all/0|title=Jayson Keeling|date=2016-03-02|work=International Center of Photography|access-date=2018-04-09|language=en}}</ref> was an artist who worked in photography, video, sculpture, and installation.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://africanah.org/jayson-keeling/|title=Jayson Keeling|website=AFRICANAH.ORG|publisher=AFRICANAH.ORG|accessdate=25 March 2018}}</ref> Keeling's work challenges conventional norms surrounding sex, gender, race, and religion.<ref name=":1" /> Keeling often reconfigured popular iconography, to explore notions of masculinity, and cultural ritual.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|title=Jayson Keeling|url=https://www.artspace.com/artist/jayson-keeling|website=Artspace|accessdate=25 March 2018|archive-date=28 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328165752/https://www.artspace.com/artist/jayson-keeling|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Early life and education == Jayson Keeling was born in 1966 in Brooklyn, New York to Jamaican parents.<ref name="HuffPost - 22 February 2012 - Go Wild With Jayson Keeling’s Exhibition" /><ref name=":0" /> Keeling's grew up between Jamaica and the Bronx, New York.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2011/10/jayson-keelings-see-jungle-see-jungle-go-join-your-gang-yeah-city-all-over-go-ape-crazy/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180410072343/http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2011/10/jayson-keelings-see-jungle-see-jungle-go-join-your-gang-yeah-city-all-over-go-ape-crazy/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=April 10, 2018|title=Jayson Keeling's See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy|last=ARC|website=arcthemagazine.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-09}}</ref> His bi-cultural upbringing would later influence his work.<ref name=":3" /> Keeling graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1986 with an AA in Fashion Illustration and Art History.<ref name=":2" /> Keeling started off by working as a photographer and film director in fashion, music, film, and the pornography industry.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://blackartistnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-york-jayson-keeling-in-conversation.html|title=NEW YORK: Jayson Keeling in Conversation|last=|first=|date=1 December 2011|website=Black Artist News|access-date=28 March 2018}}</ref>

== Art == Jayson Keeling mines popular culture, and mythology to create artworks that question and deconstruct accepted politics of sex, gender, race, and religion.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> Keeling works in photography, video, sculpture, and installation.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

His work often pulls from different visual cultures and then "jams them all into the same frame."<ref name="HuffPost - 22 February 2012 - Go Wild With Jayson Keeling’s Exhibition" /> Keeling often works in the realms in-between cultures, creating work that is "neither here nor there."<ref name="HuffPost - 22 February 2012 - Go Wild With Jayson Keeling’s Exhibition" /> He often uses performative gestures to explore ritual and masculinity.<ref name=":0" />

Jayson Keeling's photographs have been described as violent, sexy, glam and grotesque.<ref name="HuffPost - 22 February 2012 - Go Wild With Jayson Keeling’s Exhibition" />

A work by Keeling, a diptych of photographs of legendary dancer and choreographer, Willi Ninja, exhibited at the 2008 "The B Sides" show at Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art was described by art critic Benjamin Genocchio as "one of the show's most arresting exhibits" in ''The New York Times''.<ref name="The New York Times - 26 December 2008 - The House Party Spirit in All Its Glory">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/nyregion/new-jersey/28artsnj.html|title=The House Party Spirit in All Its Glory|last=Benjamin Genocchio|date=December 26, 2008|work=The New York Times|accessdate=28 March 2018}}</ref>

== Selected exhibitions == {{BLP sources section|date=April 2021}} 2014

* Aljira at 30: Dream and Reality, New Jersey State Museum<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/nyregion/utopian-vision-born-of-a-harsh-truth.html|title=Utopian Vision Born of a Harsh Truth|date=2014-04-11|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-04-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://aljira.org/past-exhibitions/aljira-at-30-dream-and-reality/|title=Aljira at 30, Dream and Reality « Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art|website=aljira.org|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-09}}</ref> * The First Sweet Music at John and June Allcott Gallery * TEN at Cindy Rucker Gallery<ref name=":4">{{cite web|url=https://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/3941-jayson-keeling?tab=EXHIBITS|title=Jayson Keeling - Exhibition|website=ArtSlant|accessdate=28 March 2018|archive-date=29 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329055401/https://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/3941-jayson-keeling?tab=EXHIBITS|url-status=dead}}</ref>

2013

* Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand Curated by Jayson Keeling at the Lower East Side Printshop. * Another New York at Barclays Center * Psychosexual at Andrew Rafacz Gallery<ref name=":4" />

2012

* Bigger Than Shadows at DODGE Gallery * tête-à-tête at Yancey Richardson Gallery * tête-à-tête at Rhona Hoffman Gallery<ref name=":4" />

2011

* Nov 2011 - Four Minutes, Thirty-Three Seconds at LegalArt * See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy. at Third Streaming<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/jayson-keeling-see-jungle-see-jungle-go-join-your-gang-yeah-city-all-over-go-ape-crazy-third-streaming-december-28-2011|title=Jayson Keeling, "See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy"|website=TimeOut|accessdate=28 March 2018|archive-date=29 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329122337/https://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/jayson-keeling-see-jungle-see-jungle-go-join-your-gang-yeah-city-all-over-go-ape-crazy-third-streaming-december-28-2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="HuffPost - 22 February 2012 - Go Wild With Jayson Keeling’s Exhibition">{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/go-wild-with-jayson-keeling_n_1292243.html|title=Go Wild With Jayson Keeling’s Exhibition "See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy"|date=February 22, 2012|work=The Huffington Post|accessdate=28 March 2018}}</ref> * Seoul Food: apexart Outbound Residents Talk Shop at Apexart<ref name=":4" />

2010

* Automatic For The People: John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres at Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art * Bite:Street-inspired Art & Fashion at 3rd Streaming Gallery - 10 Green Street, 2nd FL * Chapter Four: Let It Die at Lehmann Maupin - Chrystie Street * Lush Life, Chapter Eight: 17 Plus 25 Is 32 at Scaramouche * Lush Life at Collette Blanchard Gallery * LUSH LIFE: WHISTLE at Sue Scott Gallery * Jamaica Flux: Workspaces & Windows 2010 Art as Action at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning * CONVERSIONs | one-night stands at BronxArtSpace<ref name=":4" />

2009

* Rockstone & Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art at Real Art Ways * 99 44/100% Pure at Real Art Ways * Everyman's an Angel at NY Studio Gallery * PULSE at Taller Boricua Galleries at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center * resident/alien at Apexart * Queens International 4 at Queens Museum of Art * Perception As Object at Monya Rowe Gallery<ref name=":4" />

2008

* VIDEOSTUDIO at Studio Museum in Harlem<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.studiomuseum.org/exhibition/videostudio|title=The Studio Museum in Harlem|website=www.studiomuseum.org|language=en|access-date=2018-04-09}}</ref> * "Red badge of courage revisited" at Newark Arts Council, * Strangers at Privateer * “Homecoming” at ABC NO RIO * Summer Mixed Tape Volume 1: the Get Smart Edition at Exit Art * Intransit at Moti Hasson * DEADLIEST CATCH: Hamptons at CORE : Hamptons<ref name=":4" />

2007

* Sex in the City at The DUMBO Arts Center (DAC) * The Wu-Tang / googolplex Show (Congress) at GBE@passerby * Six Degrees of Separation at Paul Sharpe Contemporary Art * AIM27 “Here and Elsewhere” at Bronx Museum of the Arts<ref name=":4" />

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Keeling, Jayson}} Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:American photographers