Memory, Myth, and Home: Jovan C. Speller

Jovan C. Speller joins Matthew Fluharty for a conversation on her recent work and its meditation on Black origins, land, and multilayered family histories.
Jovan C. Speller is a multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis, MN. Her work – visual, textual and performative – interprets historic narratives through contemporary discourse. Her research-based practice is centered around elevating, complicating and inventing stories that explore ancestry, identity, and spatial memory – making the intangible tangible and the invisible visible.
Speller holds a B.F.A. in Fine Art Photography from Columbia College Chicago. Speller's work has been exhibited at The Plains Art Museum, the Bockley Gallery, and Minneapolis College of Art and Design, with upcoming solo exhibitions at Aspect/Ratio Projects and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. She is a recipient of the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, a Next Step Fund Grant, the Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship, and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant. 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.
For more information on Jovan's work:
http://jovanspeller.com/
For more information on the High Visibility exhibition at the Plains Art Museum:
https://plainsart.org/exhibitions/high-visibility/
High Visibility exhibition site: https://inhighvisibility.org/
In this conversation, Jovan mentions the following works:
This video of Jovan's photographic process, and the Choosing Home series, can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDuQLPAglfc
Relics of Home:
http://jovanspeller.com/relics-of-home
In Lottie's Living Room:
https://inhighvisibility.org/Jovan-C-Speller
High Visibility is a partnership with Plains Art Museum and Art of the Rural:
https://plainsart.org/
http://artoftherural.org/
We are grateful for the support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.