Conversation, Material Conflict: A Conversation with Tomashi Jackson and Naomi Safran-Hon

Left: Tomashi Jackson, Heiresses (The Central Park Plan), 2019. Acrylic, oil, and silkscreen on paper and canvas, with digital prints on vinyl. Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery; right: Naomi Safran-Hon, The Storm in My Heart, 2019. Acrylic, cement,

Left: Tomashi Jackson, Heiresses (The Central Park Plan), 2019. Acrylic, oil, and silkscreen on paper and canvas, with digital prints on vinyl. Courtesy the artist and Tilton Gallery; right: Naomi Safran-Hon, The Storm in My Heart, 2019. Acrylic, cement, and lace. Courtesy the artist and Slag Gallery

Artists Tomashi Jackson, M.F.A. 2016, and Naomi Safran-Hon, M.F.A. 2010, incorporate both traditional and nontraditional materials in their artwork to engage in contemporary cultural conflict. The two will hold a conversation moderated by Mark Aronson, Chief Conservator at the Yale Center for British Art, that will probe how the artists’ use of materials in their visually engaging and inventive work relates to themes of political, racial, global, and personal conflict.



This conversation is the keynote for the 2019 Historically Black Colleges and Universities Students and Mentors Institute in Technical Art History (HBCU SMITAH), a weeklong workshop hosted by the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, Yale University, and generously funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.