Last but certainly not least in our SPRING / BREAK Art Show artist feature is our very own Jarrett Key.

Born and raised in Seale, Alabama, Jarrett Key is a multi-disciplinary artist who integrates movement, music, and heightened language in his work. Graduate of Brown University, he is currently the Assistant to the Associate Producer at the Public Theater and has produced, performed, and curated many art pieces and performances during his time in NYC.

Jarrett's hairpainting series marries performance and visual art through codified movement, tempera paint and a ponytail, straightened with a hot comb. This literal “hairbrush” transcribes the movements and gestures of the embodied tool. Each mark on the canvas is a signature of identity, a relic of performance. Each endeavor is a recorded dance-like performance, with a resulting hairpainting object.

Hairpainting No 14 is set to a score of Jarrett interviewing family members about his late grandmother. They discussed what was she like, what she wore, her daily rituals. These memories combined with a set of 4-5 choreographed movements birth the full performance. The deliberate use of Black hair - an intensely charged symbol of respectability politics, workplace discrimination, and beauty standards - as the mark-making tool is key in the series. It underscores the personal and political nature of Jarrett's work.

Stop by 4 Times Sq, Fl 23, Room 24 to see the beautiful and arresting work of Jarrett Key. We'll be there today and tomorrow from 11am - 6pm.