Meka Jean
  • Home
  • about me
  • 2025, The Emergence Room
  • 2025, Made in the Plains, Joslyn Art Museum
  • 2025, Arthlete: Embodied Research and Pugilism
  • 2025, Breach of Confidentiality, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles
  • 2024, Grief Portraits of Tameka, Chicago Expo, Jane Lombard Gallery
  • 2024, Charles Allis Museum Solo Exhibition (Talk Back) Chapter One: Estate
  • 2023, Transform Any Room, Des Moines Art Center
  • 2023, Dora Maar Residency, Grief Portraits of Tameka
  • 2023, Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler, Galerie PJ, Metz, France
  • 2022, Iowa Arts Council Award
  • 2021, Second Line, University Galleries of Illinois State University, (narrated walkthrough)
  • 2021, Part I: Second Line, University Galleries of Illinois State University
  • 2021, Part II: Second Line, University Galleries of Illinois State University
  • 2021, a eulogy | By(e), Tameka!
  • 2021, Wikipedia, Institutional Critique, Tameka Norris
  • 2021, Meka Jean, Still (a) Life, a visual long play
  • 2020-2021, Figge Museum (solo exhibition)
  • 2020, A Mother's Day Performance, May 10, 2020
  • 2020, Performance in Place, Rubin Foundation
  • 2020, Gay Guerrilla
  • 2019, Monkey's Uncle, Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemperanea
  • 2016-2017, Grant Wood Fellowship
  • 2016, Cut From the Same Cloth, Ronchini Gallery, London
  • 2016, you go to my head, group show
  • 2014-2016, MEKA JEAN PROJECT EXHIBITIONS
    • 2014- now, The Meka Jean Project
    • 2016,MEKA JEAN:IVY LEAGUE RATCHET, EP >
      • Ivy League Ratchet, SVA, The Beat Goes On
      • Meka Jean: Ivy League Ratchet, at SVA, NYC
    • MEKA JEAN:NOT ACQUIESCING, 1708 GALLERY, RICHMOND VA
    • MEKA JEAN: RECOVERY,EMERSON DORSCH GALLERY, Miami
    • MEKA JEAN: SOLE RIGHTS, DAVID SHELTON GALLERY, HOUSTON
    • MEKA JEAN: PROSPECT.3, NEW ORLEANS
  • 2012-2015, Radical Presence:Black Performance in contemporary art
  • 2009-2015, Performance and video
    • 2015, become someone else,The art assignment, PBS
    • 2010- now, Yale School of Art (Semesters 1-4)
    • 2010-2012 The Canon Studies at Yale Univ
    • 2009, at skowhegan
    • 2008-2010, the infamous Licker music video at UCLA
  • 2005-2015, Paintings
    • 2005-2015, Paintings
    • 2014-2015, Paintings in the Round
    • 2014, Almost Acquaintances, Ronchini Gallery, London, UK
  • Contact
  • Home
  • about me
  • 2025, The Emergence Room
  • 2025, Made in the Plains, Joslyn Art Museum
  • 2025, Arthlete: Embodied Research and Pugilism
  • 2025, Breach of Confidentiality, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles
  • 2024, Grief Portraits of Tameka, Chicago Expo, Jane Lombard Gallery
  • 2024, Charles Allis Museum Solo Exhibition (Talk Back) Chapter One: Estate
  • 2023, Transform Any Room, Des Moines Art Center
  • 2023, Dora Maar Residency, Grief Portraits of Tameka
  • 2023, Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler, Galerie PJ, Metz, France
  • 2022, Iowa Arts Council Award
  • 2021, Second Line, University Galleries of Illinois State University, (narrated walkthrough)
  • 2021, Part I: Second Line, University Galleries of Illinois State University
  • 2021, Part II: Second Line, University Galleries of Illinois State University
  • 2021, a eulogy | By(e), Tameka!
  • 2021, Wikipedia, Institutional Critique, Tameka Norris
  • 2021, Meka Jean, Still (a) Life, a visual long play
  • 2020-2021, Figge Museum (solo exhibition)
  • 2020, A Mother's Day Performance, May 10, 2020
  • 2020, Performance in Place, Rubin Foundation
  • 2020, Gay Guerrilla
  • 2019, Monkey's Uncle, Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemperanea
  • 2016-2017, Grant Wood Fellowship
  • 2016, Cut From the Same Cloth, Ronchini Gallery, London
  • 2016, you go to my head, group show
  • 2014-2016, MEKA JEAN PROJECT EXHIBITIONS
    • 2014- now, The Meka Jean Project
    • 2016,MEKA JEAN:IVY LEAGUE RATCHET, EP >
      • Ivy League Ratchet, SVA, The Beat Goes On
      • Meka Jean: Ivy League Ratchet, at SVA, NYC
    • MEKA JEAN:NOT ACQUIESCING, 1708 GALLERY, RICHMOND VA
    • MEKA JEAN: RECOVERY,EMERSON DORSCH GALLERY, Miami
    • MEKA JEAN: SOLE RIGHTS, DAVID SHELTON GALLERY, HOUSTON
    • MEKA JEAN: PROSPECT.3, NEW ORLEANS
  • 2012-2015, Radical Presence:Black Performance in contemporary art
  • 2009-2015, Performance and video
    • 2015, become someone else,The art assignment, PBS
    • 2010- now, Yale School of Art (Semesters 1-4)
    • 2010-2012 The Canon Studies at Yale Univ
    • 2009, at skowhegan
    • 2008-2010, the infamous Licker music video at UCLA
  • 2005-2015, Paintings
    • 2005-2015, Paintings
    • 2014-2015, Paintings in the Round
    • 2014, Almost Acquaintances, Ronchini Gallery, London, UK
  • Contact
  Meka Jean
Arthlete: Embodied Research and Pugilism is a short film exploring the artist’s body as a site of inquiry. Through boxing drills, breathwork, and repetitive training, the work investigates pugilism as a form of embodied research—where strength, vulnerability, and somatic memory intersect. Drawing from gladiatorial histories and contemporary performance practice, the film examines how the body learns, adapts, resists, and emerges through physical discipline.