James T. Demetrion Lecture: Jordan Casteel

Jordan Casteel is known for her monumental paintings of friends and neighbors painted in a style that captures the character of her sitters – a result of the relationship between the artist and her subjects. Her work sheds light on stories of everyday people and represent the scope of the human experience. Casteel most recently made headlines for her portrait of fashion designer Aurora James—well known for launching the 15 Percent Pledge, which supports Black-owned businesses—on the cover of the September issue of Vogue. Casteel’s first public art commission stands as a monumental celebration of immigration on New York’s High Line, and her current exhibition at the New Museum, Jordan Casteel: Within Reach, includes both cropped images of quotidian gestures she witnesses on the New York City subway and recent portraits of her students at Rutgers University.

For the Museum’s most distinguished lecture series, named for its longest-serving director, James T. Demetrion, Casteel joined Hirshhorn director Melissa Chiu for a discussion of her powerful portraits and the community engagement that shapes them.