Jarvis Boyland

BFA in FINE ARTS 2017

My name is Jarvis Boyland and I am a senior studio art major with a minor in art history at the University of Memphis. I graduated in 2013 from White Station High School in Memphis, TN with a determination to pursue a professional career as a painter. While a student at the University, I have served as a 2014 Orientation Guide, Frosh Camp counselor, and Tiger Elite ambassador to name a few of many student leadership positions. I have received the Donald K. Carson Leadership scholarship, Frances F. Austin Art Scholarship, and in 2015 I was selected to be one of two Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial fellows at the Art Institute of Chicago, which aims to make a critical impact on American art museums by expanding the diversity of their curatorial staff. In 2016 my painting Black Boy, received a merit award in the 33rd Annual Juried Student Exhibition and Girl with the Hoop Earrings won Best in Show in the Best of Memphis Show. I spent the past year and summer working in the Prints and Drawings Department at the Art Institute with curator Mark Pascale, this year I will be working with curator Sarah Kelly Oehler in the department of American Art. I am primarily interested in ideas centered around identity and domesticity as a painter and in curatorial research. Currently, I am working on a senior thesis exhibition that will be in the spring 2017 and actively applying for residency programs after obtaining my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in May.