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JAM’s legacy continues today through the work of artists
it supported early on in their careers, such as David
Hammons, Butch Morris, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady
JUST ABOVE MIDTOWN: and Howardena Pindell. The MoMA exhibition will present
1974 TO THE PRESENT works previously shown at JAM, in a wide range of mediums.
Archival material and artist interventions will contextualize
The Museum of Modern Art the experimental ethos that defined the gallery. In addition
to the expansive exhibition, the project will include
performances, screenings, and public programs.

JAM’s founder, Linda Goode Bryant, worked at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Studio Museum in
The Museum of Modern Art announces Just Above Midtown: Harlem before founding Just Above Midtown at age 23.
1974 to the Present, for fall 2022. It will be the first museum After closing the gallery, Goode Bryant dedicated herself to
exhibition to focus exclusively on Just Above Midtown (JAM), filmmaking, directing the critically acclaimed documentary
an art gallery and self-described laboratory for African Flag Wars (2003) with Laura Poitras. In 2009, Goode Bryant
American artists and artists of color that was led by Linda started Project Eats, an urban farming initiative for black and
Goode Bryant from 1974 until 1986. brown communities in New York City that, like JAM, uses

existing resources to provide cultural sustenance.
Initially located in the heart of New York’s major commercial
gallery district, JAM was founded by Linda Goode Bryant Thomas J. Lax, Curator, Department of Media and
with the explicit purpose of “being in but not of the art Performance and organizer of the exhibition explains,
world.” By the time JAM closed its doors, it had established “This exhibition acknowledges Just Above Midtown as the
itself as one of the most vibrant and influential alternative efflorescent space where many of the artists who now are
art spaces in New York, embracing work by abstract, recognized as the most important figures of the second
self-taught artists, organizing groundbreaking exhibitions half of the 20th century were first supported. This ambitious
that thematized the idea of mixture in art and society, and project not only historicizes JAM’s importance, but also
fostering critiques of the commercialization of art. brings its relevance to the present.”

Senga Nengudi performing Air Propo at JAM, 1981. Courtesy Senga Nengudi
and Lévy Gorvy.

34 WORLD of ART