Jessica Bell Brown is the Associate Curator for Contemporary Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the former Consulting Curator at Gracie Mansion Conservancy. Prior to joining the BMA, Brown has helmed roles at Creative Time, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. A Ph.D. candidate in Modern and Contemporary Art at Princeton, Brown’s art historical research explores American panting and identity in the post-civil rights decade. Brown’s writing and art criticism has appeared in catalogues and publications for The Studio Museum in Harlem, Lévy Gorvy, The Museum of Modern Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Flash Art, Hyperallergic, Artforum, and The Brooklyn Rail.

Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee to parents of Ghanaian heritage. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues including The Whitney Museum of American Art; BAM, Brooklyn; and Josh Lilley Gallery, London. He has received commissions for public projects including a permanent installation for Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City at 145^th Street Subway Station and The Whitney Museum Billboard Project. He was awarded 2016 Sugarhill Museum Artist-in-Residence, the 2017 Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in New York City, and named the 2018 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellowship Award. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia, earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting at Hunter College. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. He has also been featured in several publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair and Forbes Magazine. He was recently appointed The Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union and serves as a Core Critic at Yale University School of Art. His work also appears in several collections including The Studio Museum of Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Perez Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum and LACMA.