Arthur Jafa

Love is the Message, The Message is Death, 2016
Video (color, sound)
7 minutes 25 seconds

About

Arthur Jafa (b. 1960, Tupelo, Mississippi) is an artist and filmmaker. Across three decades, Jafa has developed a dynamic practice comprising films, artefacts and happenings that reference and question the universal and specific articulations of Black being. Underscoring the many facets of Jafa’s practice is a recurring question: how can visual media, such as objects, static and moving images, transmit the equivalent “power, beauty and alienation” embedded within forms of Black music in US culture?

Jafa’s films have garnered acclaim at the Los Angeles, New York and Black Star Film Festivals, and his artwork is represented in celebrated collections worldwide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Tate, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The High Museum Atlanta, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Stedelijk, Luma Foundation, The Perez Art Museum Miami, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among others.

Select recent institutional solo exhibitions include MCA Chicago, Illinois (2024); OGR Torino, Italy (2022); LUMA Foundation, Arles, France (2022); Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland (2021); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebæk, Denmark (2021); Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2020); Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Canada (2020); and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2019). In 2019, he received the Golden Lion for the Best Participant of the 58th Venice Biennale “May You Live in Interesting Times.

Exhibitions

Publications

Select Press

How AI Will Change Art, According to Arthur Jafa, Marilyn Minter, and Other Artists

Artsy

Emily McDermott

July 15, 2025

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Arthur Jafa & Mark Leckey Show Off Their History-Making Videos — and DJ Skills — Together for First Time

Billboard

Alex Rigotti

July 2, 2025

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Arthur Jafa and Mark Leckey—podcast

The Art Newspaper

Ben Luke

June 27, 2025

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The 100 Best Artworks of the 21st Century: Arthur Jafa, “Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death,” 2016

ARTnews

Alex Greenberger

March 5, 2025

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The Best New York Art Shows of 2024

Vulture

Jerry Saltz

December 6, 2024

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In New York, Arthur Jafa sets record straight on Scorsese’s Taxi Driver

The Art Newspaper

Linda Yablonsky

April 26, 2024

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Arthur Jafa’s BLACK POWER TOOL AND DIE TRYNIG + BG

Screenslate

Max Levin

April 24, 2024

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Taxi Driver Was Always About Race

New York Magazine

Jerry Saltz

April 24, 2024

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