Jordan Casteel

Jordan Casteel’s intimate portraits situate her sitters—exclusively people of color—in vibrant, lively environments that range from bustling Harlem street corners and windswept plazas to quiet living rooms and cluttered childhood bedrooms. The Denver-born, New York–based artist often paints from photographs she takes on the street, which grants her work a dimension of authenticity and documentary candor. Casteel graduated with an MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale in 2014. She has shown at galleries in New Haven, New York, Cape Town, and beyond. Casteel has also been the subject of two solo institutional shows, at the Denver Art Museum and New York’s New Museum. Her portraits exalt the types of lives and stories that white gallery walls typically elide.