Jordan Casteel

Casteel’s first major solo exhibition at a museum was at the Denver Art Museum opened in February 2019. It features approximately thirty paintings spanning over four years from 2014 to 2018.

Casteel’s work comes from personally-taken photographs of her subjects. Entangling deeper meaning and targets for representation in the subjects and their surrounding. She aims to nudge the viewer's thought considering what meaning lies behind being a black man in the US today. In an interview with studio international, a NY published art periodical with over 200-thousand monthly readers worldwide, Jordan states, “The intent of the paintings is to expose my vision of black men as a sister, daughter, friend and lover. That perspective is one full of empathy and love. I see their humanity and, in turn, I want the audience to engage with them as fathers, sons, brothers, cousins – as individuals with their own unique stories to share.”

Casteel's third solo exhibition, Nights in Harlem, opened at Casey Kaplan in September 2017. The show continued her exploration of black male subjectivity but positioned her subjects in "complex interiors and urban environments." The show was met with critical praise; in New York magazine, critic Jerry Saltz wrote, "Casteel seems prepared to take a rightful place on the front lines of contemporary painting," and writer Tausif Noor wrote in Artforum, "Casteel navigates her terrain with ease, lightness, and empathy."

Casteel was selected as a 2015-2016 artist-in-residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, alongside EJ Hill and Jibade-Khalil Huffman. The program gives artists a year-long studio space, fellowship grant, stipend for materials, and group exhibition that includes all of the artists-in-residence.

Casteel's second solo exhibition, titled Brothers, opened in October 2015 at Sargent's Daughters. The show contained eight large-scale paintings of dual-portraits and were produced as part of a residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s “Process Space” on Governor’s Island. Curator Johanna Fateman reviewed the work favorably, noting of Casteel's figures that, "she achieves their diorama-like magnetism with subtle perspectival distortions and a synergy of textures."

After graduating from Yale, Casteel moved to New York City to pursue painting. Casteel's first solo exhibition in New York, titled Visible Man, opened in August 2014 at Sargent's Daughters. The show featured a number of large-scale paintings depicting mostly nude black men seated in various spaces throughout their homes. The show explored the balance between sexuality and sensuality, both in her subjects and the viewers.

Casteel studied at Lamar Dodd School of Art at University of Georgia in Cortona, Italy in 2010 and graduated from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia in 2011. Casteel later went on to receive her Master in Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking at Yale in 2014. Casteel participated in several group exhibitions while at Yale, including 13 Artists, a historic show curated by then-classmate Awol Erizku.

Jordan Casteel (born 1989) is an American figurative painter. Casteel typically paints intimate portraits of friends, lovers, and family members as well as neighbors and strangers in Harlem and New York. Casteel lives and works in New York City.

Casteel was born in Denver, Colorado in 1989. Casteel has a twin brother and an older brother. Artists Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Faith Ringgold, Charles White, and Jacob Lawrence were significant influences while growing up.