Jameelah Platt

Jameelah is an interdisciplinary artist with a primary focus in painting ,collage and filmmaking.. She is a Pittsburgh native and has presented solo exhibitions with the Pittsburgh Center for Art, Assemble Learning Center and Mr.Roboto Gallery and Mural work for the Associated Artist of Pittsburgh. She has also exhibited with the Free Expression Project, The Brewhouse Association, Museum Lab, University of Pittsburgh: Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, Seton Hill Harlan Gallery, The Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. She has also shown at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia Pa, and has participated in the 2019 Freshworks Artist residency Hosted by the Kelly Strayhorn Theatre & Dance Alloy. Jameelah is currently an artist in residence with the BrewHouse Artist Association.

Influenced by Black American culture, history and people we choose to immortalize, figurative painting presents me with moments of exploration and later translation of the external world around me. This process of mystery and discovery that transforms into creation is what attracts me to painting, collage and narrative building.
The narratives within my paintings are selected based upon the allure of the image’s composition and aesthetic. The compositions and setting of college works have always stemmed from a more imaginative place. In Both paintings and collage , if an image is found or spliced from multiple image references, the attraction of the image is rooted in these three pillars. The body language of the figures, the relation between the firgure/s and the setting, and finally the softness and/or theatrics of color and lighting.
With a priority to create work that heals and reflects my community and experiences within, my studio practice is propelled by the fascination of narrative building, African American portraiture and film , assemblage and the adornment of objects, spaces and people. I'm intrigued with the way in which color and composition can affect the translation of a narrative, and its relationship to the content that is being presented.
With both painting and collage in mind, I aim to highlight the decorative and ornamental nature of what it feels like to exist as a Black American. Through this lens I aim to illustrate narratives that are familiar and reflective to viewers. Many of the thematic experiences within my work include ideals of luxury, celebration, stillness , togetherness, the culture of black hair, music , romance ,common life, holiness, the angelic, dream-states, the afterlife , ancestral relationships and the dichotomies surrounding such themes. Through this residency I would like to illuminate these themes and translate them into stained glass and neon works.