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Jamie Lee Harris is an African American artist from Notasulga, Alabama who received her BA in art from Alabama State University, a historical black university located in the heart of Montgomery, Alabama. Her practice shines a focus on the African American diaspora that contextualizes lost and forgotten histories of Black rural America. Harris’ mediums include the use of oil paint, to account for visual narratives of historical reverence and familiarity in juxtaposition to sculptural and utilitarian use of clay ceramics often attributed to craft. Her main influences are taken from the likes of the Edgefield Potters of South Carolina, Josiah Wedgwood, Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald, and a plethora of portrait artist spanning from the 1600s to now.
Harris was a 2022 recipient of the National Black Arts Foundation’s Horizon Award for visual arts and a Sam Fox Graduate Fellow Ambassador. She has participated in a host of group shows in the metro of Atlanta, Georgia, the Montgomery Artist’s Guild, the Montgomery Museum of Art, The Kemper Museum in St. Louis, and The Luminary. After completing her MFA at Washington University in St. Louis in 2023 she has worked as a fabricator for Kahlil Robert Irving and Crystal Z. Cambell. She currently is an instructor at two non-profits, South Broadway Art Project and Wildwood Green Arts.