Jacolby Satterwhite
Jacolby Satterwhite
Jacolby Satterwhite understands gender, identity, and the body as fluid states. His multimedia installations draw on references to queer theory, modernism, and video games. Much like a “digital painter,” he uses a variety of software to create complex video animations, sound pieces, images, and objects. The animations form the stage on which Satterwhite brings together the various disciplines of his artistic practice including drawing, performance, painting, sculpture, photography, writing and music. A key point of reference is the famous historic Brooklyn underground nightclub ‘Spectrum’ from the 2010s, which served as a ‘safe space’ for many queer millennials. For Satterwhite, this club felt like an extension of home—a place of self-discovery and unconditional acceptance. Equally significant are his mother’s vocal recordings, which he samples and transforms into new soundtracks in the style of electronic Afrofuturism. These songs and lyrics form the matrix for his neon objects, such as Love Will Find a Way Home and We Are in Hell When We Hurt Each Other. Love, joy, resilience, and reconciliation form the conceptual core of Jacolby Satterwhite’s work.
Jacolby Satterwhite was born in Columbia, SC, USA, in 1986. He lives and works in New York. His work is held in numerous institutional collections, including those of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. In the spring of 2027, Satterwhite will be featured in a major exhibition at the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf as part of Disobedient Bodies – Biennale düsseldorf photo+ 2027. In 2026, his work was featured in What a Wonderful World. An Audiovisual Poem, at the Julia Stoschek Foundation’s Variety Arts Theatre in Los Angeles, curated by Udo Kittelmann. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and in the Great Hall of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2023/24). In recent years, Satterwhite has also participated in numerous international group exhibitions, including MACHINE LOVE: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; LACMA, Los Angeles; and the 14th Mercosul Biennial, organized by the Fundação Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul in Porto Alegre, Brazil (all 2025); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2024); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2023); FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio (2022); Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, Pennsylvania (2021); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021); Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2021); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2021); Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia (2019); Pioneer Works, New York (2019); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2019); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019); Minneapolis Institute of Art (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2018); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2018); New Museum, New York (2017); Public Art Fund, New York (2017); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017); and Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2017).
