Jessica Maxwell

Jessica Maxwell is affiliated with the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, specializing in modern and contemporary art with focuses on transnational contexts, African American art, and theories of selfhood. Her research explores race in representation and 20th-century sculpture. She holds a Ph.D. from Princeton (2013) and a B.A. in Art History from Occidental College.

Her work has been supported by the George S. Heyer Graduate Fellowship and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship. Notable publications include reviews in Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and entries in Great Lives from History: African Americans. She has presented at conferences like the College Art Association Annual Conference and participated in panels at institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum.

• Education:
• B.A., Art History and Visual Arts, Occidental College
• Ph.D., Art and Archaeology, Princeton University (2013)

Maxwell has extensive museum experience, including roles at the Princeton University Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she curated educational programs for retrospectives of Lorna Simpson and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Her current research includes analyses of Glenn Ligon’s Coloring series and Basquiat’s historical materialism.

• Awards: George S. Heyer Graduate Fellowship, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Key Talks: 'Skin as Solid: The ‘Self’ in Martin Puryear’s Sculpture' (2015), 'An Afternoon with Basquiat' (2014)