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Jamilah Sabur
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b. 1987, St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica.
Lives and works in Brussels.


IMAGES   CV
Jamilah Sabur is primarily interested in drawing attention to and facilitating climate resilience, both through her core art practice and in her community and advocacy work. Her poetic art practice intricately weaves metaphysics, language, and geography, challenging viewers to critically engage with humanity’s evolving relationship with the natural world. Beyond her artwork she focuses on generating awareness of scientific and technological climate topics. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, she aims to inspire and empower people to co-create solutions as collective guardians of our shared environment. Jamilah served as Lead Organizer for Florida Immigrant Coalition in Miami and Communications Fellow at Community Change in Washington DC. Jamilah is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Inclusive Climate Futures and is a current member of the Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) Advisory board for the PACE Index, a collaboration with zedela in Germany, pioneers in data-driven advocacy for historically marginalised communities in Europe.

Jamilah Sabur’s recent solo and group exhibitions include Kingston Biennial:Green X Gold, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston (current); Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis, The Huntington, Los Angeles (2024); Scrawlspace, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation / The 8th Floor, New York (2024); Labor, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2024); Acts of Translation, New Bond Street Art Program/Gucci, London (2024); Aan de rand van de Hemel: Visioenen, Museum Krona, Uden, Netherlands (2024); This Land, The Contemporary Austin, Texas (2023); Fruits of Labour, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium (2023); Sinking Feeling, Or Gallery, Vancouver (2023); The Harvesters, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach (2022); La montagne fredonne sous l’océan / The Mountain Sings Underwater, Fondation PHI, Montréal, Québec (2021). Sabur earned a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore (2009), and an MFA from the University of California, San Diego (2014). 

Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami Dade County Public Art Trust, New Orleans Museum of Art, The Bass Museum of Art, University of Maryland, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) – the central bank of the Netherlands and TD Bank Group.

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For her most recent group exhibition with the gallery please click here.​

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Jamilah Sabur, Mnemonic alphabet (A/Alud), 2019, Neon, transformer, print on cotton rag, Honduran mahogany, enamel, 112 x 137 x 8 cm
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Jamilah Sabur, After mining the soil is less capable of retaining water, 2022, C-Type print on aluminium, 44.5 x 88.5 cm (framed), and acrylic-casein on linen 120 x 120 cm
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Jamilah Sabur, Obra, 2019 digital video, color, sound, 03'17'', Installation view, Faena Festival 2019. Photo by Oriol Tarridas
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Jamilah Sabur, in an ocean of air, 2022, Architectural intervention, hand glazed ceramic tile and neon, Installation at the Port of Miami, USA, Courtesy of the Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places Trust
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Jamilah Sabur, rivers of air, 2022, Neon, 40 x 6 x 4 cm, Installation view from solo exhibition 'The Harvesters’ at the Bass Miami, USA. Photo credit: Zaire Aranguren
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Jamilah Sabur, Tidal locking, 2019, Color, sound, 5 min
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Jamilah Sabur, Parabolic reflection diagram, 2022, Neon, transformer, 40 x 6 x 4 cm
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Jamilah Sabur, Un chemin escarpé, 2018, 5-channel video, 11'38''. Installation view from the Hammer Museum. Photo by Jeff McLane
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Jamilah Sabur, This is where my father was born, 2020 Oil, graphite, on linen 112 x 112 cm
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Jamilah Sabur, I will wet you (pl.) with the new water, 2018, Neon and transformers, 289.5 x 20 cm
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Jamilah Sabur, an antipode, a stairway, a spectral standard from Arabic At-Tinnin, 2023, Aluminium tray framed inkjet print, neon, Overall dimensions variable

​Solo Exhibitions
2023
The Harvesters, Bass Museum, South Beach, Miami, Florida, USA    
 
2022
The Harvesters, Bass Museum, South Beach, Miami, Florida, USA    
In an Ocean of Air, permanent installation, Port of Miami, Florida, USA
Eltanin, Broadway, New York, USA
 
2021
DADA Holdings, Nina Johnson, Miami, Florida, USA
The mountain sings underwater, Momenta Biennale, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada
 
2020
Observations: Selected Works by Jamilah Sabur, University of Maryland Art Gallery, Maryland, USA
 
2019
Memory Palace, Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, St. Augustine, Florida, USA
Stream Gradient, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
Un chemin escarpé / A steep path, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
 
2018
Ibine Ela Acu/Water Sun Moon, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, Florida, USA
The Rhetoric of the Living, Emerson Dorsch, Miami, Florida, USA
 
2017
If defined, then undefine, Dimensions Variable, Miami, Florida, USA
 


Group Exhibitions
2025
Kingston Biennial: Green X Gold, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston (current)

2024
Scrawlspace, supported by Shelly & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, USA
Storm Cloud: Art, Science, Nature, and the Industrial Age, The Huntington, San Marino, California, USA =
Wade, Kaplan Gallery, Maryland, USA
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2023
Visions, Museum Krona, Uden, The Netherlands
This Land, The Contemporary Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Transatlantic Connections: Caribbean Narratives in Contemporary Art, presented by 1-54, Christie's, London, UK
Fruits of Labour, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium
Sinking Feeling, Or Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Here and Now: Recent Acquisitions, University of Maryland Art Gallery, Maryland, USA
 
2022
Phraseology, The Bass Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA
Boil, Toil, Trouble, Art in Common, curated by Zoe Lukov, Miami, Florida, USA
 
2021
Prospect 5, New Orleans: Yesterday we said tomorrow, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Worldmaking Tentacles, Momenta Biennale, Fonderie Darling, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Here there And Everywhere, Foley Gallery, New York, USA
Des Tentacules Façonnant Le Monde, Fonderie Darling, Montreal, Canada
 
2020
Mending the Sky, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans
House to House: Women, Politics, and Place, Frost Art Museum, Miami
The Willfulness of Objects, curated by Silvia Karman Cubiñá and Leilani Lynch, The Bass, Miami, Florida, USA
Time Share, Performa, New York, USA
Open Justice, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
 
2019
The Last Supper, Faena Art, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
The Other Side of Now,  Pérez Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA
Parallels and Peripheries, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan, USA
 
2018             
Deconstruction, Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA
Augmented sunrise beneath the skin, Gr_und, Berlin, Germany
Études conviviales, SBC galerie d’art Contemporain, Montréal, Canada
Between a view and a milestone, ArtCenter South Florida, USA
SCORCHED EARTH, Current Projects, Miami, Florida, USA
The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida, USA
 
2017
Sunrise, Sunset, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
baby boy, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
MemoryLab, History Museum, Miami, Florida, USA
 

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Collections include:

Pérez Art Museum Miami  
New Orleans Museum of Art 
Bass Museum of Art  
University of Maryland 
TD Bank Group 
Collection of the National Bank of the Netherlands


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Screenings 
2018 

The Willfulness of Objects, The Bass Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA (until 2022) Beneath the rivers, there are no borders, Future of Demonstration, Vienna, Austria 
A derivation of time, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, Florida, USA 
Beneath the rivers, there are no borders, Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami, Florida, USA 

2017 
Black Radical Imagination in partnership with LUX Scotland, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland 
Black Radical Imagination in partnership with LUX Scotland, ICA London, London, UK Latinoamericano Cine Del Nuevo International Festival in Havana, Cuba 
EXiS Festival, Busan Corner Theatre, Busan, Korea 
Black Radical Imagination, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA 
Crater-Lab, Barcelona, Spain 
(S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico, A Coruña,Galicia, Spain 
Los Angeles Film Forum, Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, Los Angeles, USA 
San Francisco Cinematheque/Crossroads Film Festival, San Francisco, California, USA 



Performances 
2018  

Beneath the rivers, there are no borders, Future of Demonstration, Vienna, Austria 
A derivation of time, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL 
Beneath the rivers, there are no borders, Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami, FL 

2016  
My Queen before you go tell my horse, Maggie Knox, Miami, FL 

2015  
Actual Infinity, Berkshire, Reese and Paul Galleries, Herron College of Art, Indiana University 
Voleur (thief), performed in collaboration with Andy Robert, Dimensions Variable, Miami, FL 

2014  
Convoluted Shape, Bakehouse Art Center, Miami, FL
 
2013 
Choreographer, designer, and performer for “Congo River God,” composed and conducted 
by Joshua Charney. Conrad Prepys Theater, Uni-versity of California San Diego, CA 

2012  
Zinnia and the whitefly, Summer Salon Series, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA 



Lectures 
2019  

The Other Side of Now, Perez Art Museum - Nov. 15, 2019 
Jamilah Sabur in conversation with Micheal Queenland, Hammer Museum - Apr. 18, 2019 Contemporary Art Production in the Carribean, Tout-Monde Festival, ICA Miami - Mar. 17

2017  
Design Miami “Performative Representation and Black Aesthetics” – Dec. 7, 2017 
“Sheltering Survivors and Boundaries” Coral Gables Museum – Nov. 15, 2017 
Keynote talk, MICE: Ghost Intimacies Symposium – Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto – Nov. 4, 2017  
Jamilah Sabur in conversation w/ Dr. Lori Lee: race, memory, and negotiation of spaces – Flagler College, St. Augustine – Oct. 17, 2017 

2016  
Intersectional Feminism, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami -Aug. 2, 2016 

2012  
Perspectives: Made With Words (John Baldessarri: A Print Retrospective from the Collections of Jordan D.Schnitzer and Family Foundation), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA. -Feb. 16, 2012