Kellie Jones

Dr. Kellie Jones is the Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art in Columbia University’s Department of Art History & Archaeology and holds a joint appointment in African American & African Diaspora Studies. A leading scholar of African diasporic and Latinx art, her work bridges academic research and curatorial practice. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019) and the American Philosophical Society (2023), and recipient of the 2016 MacArthur Fellowship. Her research focuses on 20th-century artists, museum theory, and the intersections of art with civil rights movements.

• Education: Honorary Doctorates from The Courtauld (2022) and Amherst College (2018)

Her publications include South of Pico (2017) and EyeMinded (2011), both critically acclaimed. Recent writings engage David Hammons and Black modernist sculptors. Her exhibitions, such as Now Dig This! (Hammer Museum, 2012), have redefined narratives of Black Los Angeles art history. Awards include the High Museum’s David C. Driskell Prize (2005) and the College Art Association’s Distinguished Scholar Award (2020).

• Key Exhibitions: Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the 1960s (Brooklyn Museum, 2014), Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction (Studio Museum in Harlem, 2006)