Background

Jarvis Boyland was born in 1995, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.

Education

In 2013, Jarvis finished the White Station High School in Memphis. In 2013, he entered the University of Memphis in Memphis, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2017. The following year, in 2018, Boyland also attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan.

Career

During the time, when Jarvis was a student of the University of Memphis, he served as a 2014 Orientation Guide, Frosh Camp counselor and Tiger Elite ambassador. In 2016, Jarvis worked as an intern in the Prints and Drawings Department at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2017, he was an artist-in-residence at ACRE Residency in Steuben (Artists' Cooperative Residency & Exhibitions). Between 2018 and 2019, Boyland was an artist-in-residence at the Arts + Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture programs at the University of Chicago.

During his career, the painter took part in many exhibitions, held at different galleries, including "Do it!" at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis (2016), "As I Am" at Sager Braudis Gallery in Columbia (2017), "Cosmic Traffic Jam" at Zevitas Marcus Gallery in Los Angeles (2018) and others.

Currently, he lives and works in Chicago.

Achievements

• Jarvis Boyland gained prominence for his paintings, that focus on queer men of color within intimate spaces. His most famous works include "Girl with the Hoop Earrings" and "Black Boy".
  
  Jarvis received several scholarships, fellowships and awards, including the Donald K. Carson Leadership Scholarship in 2014, Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship in 2015-2017, Frances F. Austin Art Scholarship in 2016, as well as Merit Award and Best of Show Award, both in 2016.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Expectations

  • Keenan

  • Bluff

  • Before Brazil, Mark

  • Before Brazil, Robert

  • Untitled, (Crease in My neck)

  • Study of a figure in recline

  • Hold Still

  • Untitled

  • Limp

  • Feels like We only go backwards, (Pulse)

  • You and Me, (Mark)

  • You and Me, (Robert)

  • Untitled, (after American Collectors)

  • Black Boy

  • Untitled (torso study)

  • Untitled (Portrait of a domestic woman)

  • Hannah at 18

  • Girl with the Hoop Earrings

  • Untitled

  • How do I get to Heaven from here? (after Roy Gonsalves)

Views

Boyland sees the domestic space as the foundation of social ideologies and an incubator, that molds the facade of masculinity. Based on photographic images, that the artist reconfigures to create specific compositions, Boyland's paintings sensitively highlight the nuances of complex interpersonal relationships, identities and locales.

Furthermore, the idea of comfort is a recurring theme in Jarvis Boyland’s work.