Untitled

Earl Jackson was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1948 and raised in Willow Run, near Detroit. He studied art at Washtenaw Community College and Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilianti). From 1970 Jackson sold his artworks at art fairs throughout Michigan while working as a picture framer in Ann Arbor. Solo exhibitions of Jackson's work followed from 1980, with his 1983 show Blues at the University of Michigan establishing African-American music as a recurring theme in his work. Multiple trips to Africa in the 1980s reinforced for Jackson that many aspects of African-American life contained echoes of African backgrounds. Later exhibitions include Lithos Gallery (St. Louis), University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Creative Arts Centre (Pontiac), and his work has also been exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) and the National Gallery of Art (Dakar, Senegal). In the late 1990s Jackson moved to Atlanta, Georgia.