Casey Kaplan
Jordan Casteel On The Power Of Art Right Now
Mar 13, 2017
By Leah Melby Clinton
Amongst the never-ending, century-spanning talk about what art means—the ways it can impact society; how to define it—today’s political climate has us looking to gallery walls with an even sharper eye. What is the artist’s role in everything that’s happening out there? Recording, parsing, distracting?
“If anything, for me, it has affirmed why empathy and the sharing of stories continue to be necessary,” Jordan Casteel explained. The Colorado-born artist’s work has been lauded by big-time institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Times, and from our conversation, it’s easy to reconcile thoughts of the little, craft-loving girl raised by a justice-chasing family with the cerebral, Yale-educated creative she is now. Here, Casteel answers our questions on building a career, weathering criticism, and more.