Now my name is Dr. Jerry Gant, the ghetto optometrist, third-eye specialist. Front teeth, gold teeth, all provocateur — kickin' in the doors of oppression & the first I learned was love.
JERRY GANT
(b. 1961- d. 2018) was a Black American artist whose work is associated with Abstract Expressionism, Neo Dada, and Street Art practices. He is best known for his depictions of urban Black expression in the forms of fashion, poetry, street art, painting, sculpture, and performance. Gant’s artistic practice traversed and bridged all forms of visual and performance art disciplines; in this sense, the hallmark of his creative impulse has been an enduring genre-defiance, one that shattered all categories while resisting the limits of classification.
An interdisciplinary visual artist, writer, educator, activist, cultural historian and theorist, Jerry Gant was a native of Newark, New Jersey, and, along with his divergent body of creative practices was a major component of the vibrant Newark arts and culture scene for over 35 years. Jerry’s extensive list of achievements span and connect the literary, performing and visual arts, and feature numerous solo projects, group exhibitions, as well as significant and varied critical reviews, including the New York Times.
An early creator and proponent of eco-friendly and sustainable fashion, Gant first emerged as an artist on the streets of Newark and New York City in the 1980’s with repurposed, hand-painted streetwear. Over time, his upcycling methods evolved to include bold images and an intricate system of visual symbols, similar to hieroglyphics, which ultimately became recognizable as distinctive features of his art wear practice, aptly branded as ‘Gantalism’.
His early street art and graffiti pursuits led to serendipitous encounters with notable contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat. His work evolved under the influence and self-study of artists such as Alexander Calder, Keith Haring, David Hammons, Jeff Koontz, El Anatsui and Yinka Shonibare.
Jerry Gant was committed to cultivating projects ‘outside the cube’; introducing and establishing the existence of a contemporary art aesthetic in urban communities. Gant’s insistence upon subverting what he experienced as an often exclusionary gallery system led to his creation of murals in Newark, New Jersey, Miami, Florida, and London, UK. Additionally, Gant was commissioned to create permanent public works by the City of Newark, New Jersey Transit, and the Trust for Public Land in New Jersey. The latter project featured thirteen sculptures installed at Nat Turner Park, the largest city-owned park in Newark, New Jersey, and culminated in a five sculpture installation flanking the entrances of Newark’s historic Pennsylvania Station. In 2018, Gant was one of a select group of international artists whose work is featured on the Art Wall facade surrounding the PSE&G Fairmount Heights Switching Station in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey.
Celebrating its 40th Anniversary in 2021, Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University Newark, dedicated a solo exhibition to the life and work of Jerry Gant titled, Bulletproof Ambition: The Art of Jerry Gant, curated by Linda Street. The exhibition will head to the prestigious Kresge Gallery at Ramapo College for their Spring 2022 shows. Simultaneously, the Morris Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, featured a special installation of Gant works in its history making exhibition, On and Off the Streets: Urban Art New Jersey, curated by Street Art NYC’s Lois Stavsky. Notably, this was the first museum exhibition to examine the duality of New Jersey artists whose creative versatility extends from the street to the studio. Amongst collectors of Gant’s work are institutions such as WBGO Radio, Newark Public Library Special Collections and Newark Museum of Art.
Photo credit: Colleen Gutwein O’Neal, Newark Artist Photo Documentary Project (2014)