Filmmaker and artist Arthur Jafa has come aboard the directorial roster of Stink for global representation in spots, branded content and music videos. As reflected in assorted publications, exhibitions and a place on Art Reviews’ top 100 Power list, Jafa is acknowledged as a leading influential artisan in society, particularly for his contributions to black culture.
Jafa is perhaps best known for, Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death (2016), a seven-minute video set to Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam.” This critically-acclaimed exploration of African-American identity screened across the world, in galleries including Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA) and the Serpentine in London. In 2017, along with TNEG–––the motion picture studio he co-founded–––Jafa also conceived, shot and edited the music video for JAY-Z’s 4:44, the title track from his newest album.
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi and educated at Howard University, Jafa first rose to prominence for lensing Daughters of the Dust (1991), Julie Dash’s seminal film that earned Jafa a “Best Cinematography” award at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. Jafa’s Dreams Are Colder Than Death, an experimental documentary exploring black identity in America, was an official selection at the 2014 New York Film Festival.
Stink EP Melinda Nugent said, “I vividly recall meeting AJ for the first time, sitting together in a Paris café reviewing one of his iconic binders of collected images… I knew instantly my world had changed. I have been honored to support the incredibly influential, important work of this multi-hyphenate artist and thinker for over twenty years. Coming off of the success of his Love is The Message exhibition, I am thrilled to bring this collaboration home to Stink’s family of ground-breaking creative artists.”
Jafa’s most recent exhibition, A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions, premiered last June at the Serpentine Galleries in London, and is currently on view at the Julia Stoschek Collection in Berlin through November, 2018.
Prior to joining Stink, Jafa had been repped by production house Strangelove. He comes about a diverse talent roster at Stink which includes directors Nicolas Winding Refn, Joachim Back, Eliot Rausch, and Salomon Ligthelm.
