Jovan C. Speller’s MAEP exhibition will aestheticize the security of a community too often targeted, misunderstood, and misrepresented in public spaces. From the creation of a sound installation, to scenes of protection across the gallery walls surrounding the viewer, the artist will depict the story of fear and hope for Black families in every American community.

Speller is a Minnesota-based artist originally from Los Angeles. She is a recipient of a 2018 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, a 2018 Next Step Fund Grant, and a 2016 Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship. She completed a residency at Second Shift Studio Space in St. Paul and was awarded the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Minnesota Art Prize in 2021. Speller is represented by Aspect/Ratio Projects in Chicago. She holds a BFA in photography from Columbia College, Chicago, and studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her artwork, I Just Came Across the River, 2017, (2020.57) was acquired by Mia in 2020.

This exhibition is part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, now located in the U.S. Bank Gallery.

Generous support for MAEP provided by:

Additional support provided by RBC Wealth Management.