Jason Moran
We Ride the Current, 2022
Pigment on Gampi paper
38 x 43 inches
(96.5 x 109.2 cm)
Jazz pianist, composer, and performance artist Jason Moran was born in Houston, TX in 1975 and earned a degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Jaki Byard. Moran was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010 and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022. He is the Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center and Curator at the Park Avenue Armory. Moran currently teaches at the New England Conservatory.
Moran is deeply invested in reassessing and complicating the relationship between music and language, and his extensive efforts in composition, improvisation, and performance are all geared towards challenging the status quo while respecting the accomplishments of his predecessors. His activity stretches beyond the many recordings and performances with masters of the form including Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell, and the late Sam Rivers, and his work with his trio The Bandwagon (with drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Tarus Mateen) has resulted in a profound discography for Blue Note Records. The scope of Moran’s partnerships and music-making with venerated and iconic visual artists is extensive. He has collaborated with such major figures as Adrian Piper, Joan Jonas, Glenn Ligon, Stan Douglas, Adam Pendleton, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker; commissioning institutions of Moran’s work include the Walker Art Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Dia Art Foundation, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Harlem Stage, and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran
Work Songs, 2015
ARENA Theatre, Central Pavilion, Giardini
56th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures
Photo: Isabella Balena
Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
The artist’s solo exhibition, Jason Moran: Black Stars: Writing in the Dark is currently on view at Mass MoCA in North Adams through December 2025. Other recent institutional solos shows include Bathing the Room with Blues at The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2021-22), and Jason Moran, organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN in 2018, which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (a monographic publication accompanied the exhibition). He has participated in major group exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial, Venice Biennale, and Soft Power at San Francisco Museum of Fine Art. In 2023, Moran curated the inaugural, permanent exhibition, Here To Stay, at The Louis Armstrong Center in Queens, NY.
For a complete schedule of upcoming performances, please visit Jason Moran’s website: www.jasonmoran.com.
Jason Moran's The Sound Will Tell You at Luhring Augustine Tribeca
January 16 – February 27, 2021
This video features the song "Follow the Light" from Moran's 2021 album "The Sound Will Tell You," and is available to purchase from Bandcamp.
For more information, please visit the exhibition page.
The Pleasure Pavilion: A series of installations
featuring Jason Moran
October 29–November 14, 2020
Luhring Augustine Bushwick
Piano by Steinway & Sons
The Vinyl Factory documentary about Jason Moran’s STAGED at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015)
Opera singer Lawrence Brownlee joins jazz pianist Jason Moran in a landmark church to tell a troubling new story with an old spiritual.
Jason Moran
STAGED at Venice Biennale
RoundO Films documentary about Jason Moran's STAGED at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015)
Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran
AiR
Interaction with installation by Jose Davila at Art Public sector of Art Basel Miami Beach, 2012
Musical composition and performance by Jason Moran
Joan Jonas and Jason Moran
Courtesy of RoundO Films
Jason Moran
Looks of a Lot, 2014
Performance work commissioned by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
In collaboration with Theaster Gates
Featuring the Bandwagon, Katie Ernst, Ken Vandermark, and the Kenwood Academy Jazz Band
May 30, 2014
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Courtesy RoundO Films
Jason Moran
Looks of A Lot, 2014
Performance work commissioned by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
In collaboration with Theaster Gates
Featuring the Bandwagon, Katie Ernst, Ken Vandermark, and the Kenwood Academy Jazz Band
May 30, 2014
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Courtesy RoundO Films
For more information, please contact Sasha Helinski at sasha@luhringaugustine.com.
