Kellie Jones (born 1959) is an American art historian and curator. She is a Professor in Art History and Archaeology in African American Studies at Columbia University.^[1] She won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2016.^[2] In 2023, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.^[3]

Biography

Jones is the daughter of poets Hettie Jones and Amiri Baraka.^[4] Jones graduated from Amherst College in 1981.^[5] She was awarded a Ph.D. by Yale University in 1999.^[6]

Her research interests include African Diaspora and African American artists, Latin American and Latino/a artists, and problems in contemporary art and museum theory.^[1] Jones has been published in journals such as NKA, Artforum, Flash Art, Atlantica, and Third Text.^[1] Jones has worked as a curator for over three decades.^[1]

Jones has a half-brother, Newark, New Jersey, mayor Ras Baraka, and a half-sister, Dominique di Prima, from Amiri's relationship with di Prima's mother.^[7][8]

Awards and honors

• 2005: David C. Driskell Prize.^[9]
• 2012: Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation
• 2013: Andy Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant.^[10]
• 2013: Terra Foundation Fellow.^[11]
• 2016: MacArthur Fellows Program award.^[2]
• 2018: College Art Association Award for Excellence in Diversity.^[12]
• 2019: American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow.^[13]

Curated exhibits

Curated and co-curated exhibits:

• Basquiat. New York: Brooklyn Museum, March 11, 2005 through June 5, 2005.^[14] Co-curators include Marc Mayer, Fred Hoffman, Kellie Jones, and Franklin Sirmans.^[14]
• Energy / Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964-1980. New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2006.^[15][16]
• Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980. Los Angeles: Hammer Museum, October 2, 2011 – January 8, 2012; MOMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York, from October 21, 2012 – March 11, 2013; and at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, MA, from July 20-December 1, 2013.^[17]
• Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties. New York: Brooklyn Museum, March 7–July 13, 2014. Co-curated by Teresa A. Carbone and Kellie Jones.^[18]

Books

• Jones, Kellie (2002). Lorna Simpson. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 0714840386
• Jones, Kellie (2011). EyeMinded: Living And Writing Contemporary Art. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822348733
• Jones, Kellie (2011). Now Dig This!: Art & Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980. Los Angeles: Hammer Museum. ISBN 978-3791351360
• Jones, Kellie (2017). South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822361640