Jacolby Satterwhite

Studio – New York City
Jacolby Satterwhite Installation view of You’re at home at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, 2019

Jacolby Satterwhite, You’re at home, 2019. Installation view, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

“What does a ritual mean? And what does it mean to repurpose and re-perform one? How is that utilitarian to the contemporary state of being?”

Portrait of Jacolby Satterwhite. Photo: Thomas McCarty for SSENSE, 2020

Jacolby Satterwhite is celebrated for a conceptual practice that addresses crucial themes of labor, consumption, carnality, and fantasy through immersive installations, virtual reality, and digital media. He uses a range of software to produce intricately detailed animations and live-action film of real and imagined worlds populated by the avatars of artists and friends. These animations serve as the stage on which the artist synthesizes the multiple disciplines that encompass his practice, namely illustration, performance, painting, sculpture, photography, and writing.

Satterwhite draws from an extensive set of references, guided by queer theory, Modernism, and video-game language, to challenge conventions of Western art. An equally significant influence is that of his late mother, Patricia Satterwhite, whose ethereal vocals and diagrams for visionary household products serve as the source material within a decidedly complex structure of memory and mythology.



Satterwhite’s work has been presented in numerous exhibitions both in the United States and in Europe, including most recently at the Fabric Workshop & Museum, Philadelphia (2019); Pioneer Works, New York (2019); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2019); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019); the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2019); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018); and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2018). He was awarded the United States Artists Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Fellowship in 2016. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; the Museum of Modern Art; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.

Born in 1986 in South Carolina, Satterwhite lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He is represented by Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.

Jacolby Satterwhite Installation view of You’re at home at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, 2019

Jacolby Satterwhite, You’re at home, 2019. Installation view, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

Jacolby Satterwhite Installation view of You’re at home at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, 2019

Jacolby Satterwhite, You’re at home, 2019. Installation view, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

Jacolby Satterwhite Installation view of You’re at home at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, 2019

Jacolby Satterwhite, You’re at home, 2019. Installation view, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

Jacolby Satterwhite Installation view of You’re at home at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, 2019

Jacolby Satterwhite, You’re at home, 2019. Installation view, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. © Jacolby Satterwhite. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York