Allison Young, assistant professor of art history, is a 2023 recipient of an Award to Louisiana Artists and Scholars (ATLAS) grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents for her current book project on the South African born artist Gavin Jantjes.

The book will be the most comprehensive study to date on the oeuvre of pioneering Jantjes, and “situates his work at the nexus of anti-apartheid activism and avant-garde artistic milieux of the late twentieth century,” Young wrote.

A prolific printmaker, Jantjes is one of the primary African Diaspora artists with demonstrable connections to international postwar movements such as Pop and Conceptual Art. A leading arts advocate of the Black British Art Movement, he wrote the agenda for Britain’s “New Internationalism” project of the 1990s, making an impact on institutional approaches towards representation, globalization, and equity at the turn of the millennium.  

“My scholarship reflects on the mediation that takes place between the interior space of an artwork and the social, political, and cultural contexts with which it is deeply intertwined,” Young said.   

“Ultimately, the project will be of benefit beyond enhancing the scholarship on Jantjes’ art alone – it is demonstrative of a truly transnational research methodology, and makes the case that diaspora artists like Jantjes should be understood as central, not peripheral, to a truly global history of postwar art.”  

The Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars (ATLAS) program provides support for major scholarly and artistic productions with potential to have a broad impact on a regional and/or national level, and on a broad academic and/or artistic community.

Young is assistant professor of contemporary art history at the LSU School of Art, and an affiliate faculty member in the department of African and African American Studies (AAAS). A specialist in postcolonial and contemporary art of the Global South, her scholarship centers primarily on African and African-Diasporic artists and art histories, with focus on questions surrounding migration, transnationalism, and political engagement in contemporary art. She is engaged in research on the intersection of contemporary art, environmentalism, and social justice in Louisiana.

This competitive award will enable her to take leave from teaching for the academic year 2023-24, and to dedicate this time fully to research and writing. She also plans to travel to the United Kingdom and South Africa to conduct additional research during the fellowship year.

Learn more about the LSU art history program.