Source: BFA / BFA
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Jacqueline “Jac” Forbes is the owner and director of Jac Forbes, one of the most stunning Black-owned galleries in Los Angeles. Forbes is also the founder of the BOTHO art collective. The BOTHO art collective is a transcontinental event happening in Los Angeles as well as Johannesburg, South Africa. It is an artist-led fair that connects creatives directly with collectors and focuses on creators of the African diaspora.
It was important to Forbes to offer a platform on which artists could create their own space where their art work would live.
“As a Black woman in art, I think it’s very important to find creative ways to work,” says Forbes. The gallery owner also says that many Black artists are comfortable opening up to her about their struggles and challenges. “Sometimes they don’t want to say, ‘I haven’t eaten a meal this week. I need paint. I need canvas. I need food.’ But they’re comfortable communicating that to me.”
One of Jac’s more recent discoveries is South African artist Nelson Makamo. After speaking with Makamo’s manager, it became clear to Forbes that the artist’s collection was so massive it would need its own special space – and Jac set out to find it. From there, Jac facilitated Makamo’s first-ever U.S. exhibition, Blue, which uses the color blue to explore themes of transition and development. Since its opening, Blue has received critical acclaim throughout the Los Angeles collectors’ community and beyond.
To the Black community, art is more than just something pretty to hang up on walls, explains Forbes. Art pieces represent, “Historical moments we can collect,” she says. And even though the art world is welcoming Black-owned galleries and artists more, Forbes says it still has a long way to go in representing these visionaries. “The door is just slightly open.”
Forbes will keep working on opening that door more and more, and loves to do it:
“I know as an entrepreneur if I’m doing something that I’m passionate about, I’ll show up every day, 24/7.”
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