Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC Features the Works of Local DC Artist Jabari C Jefferson

Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC is building on its partnership with Swirl, an award-winning non-profit, to host a resident artist, Jabari C Jefferson. Jefferson first began working with Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC last summer as part of the Hotel at Play program.  A native of the area, Jabari has been commissioned to create a series of paintings to showcase what makes each season so special in DC. The fall piece in this collection was unveiled this past weekend and now hangs in the Hotel lobby along with an exhibition of Jefferson’s work.

When creating this stunning piece, Jefferson says, “I was inspired by the feeling of walking the Georgetown brownstone neighbourhoods on autumn evenings. This beautiful area is at its peak in the fall and I have always loved how people from all walks of life gather here to take it in. One vivid memory in particular is during Halloween, when kids all get dressed up and head to the neighbourhood as it also had the best treats.”

Jabari Jefferson will be displaying several of his works during the upcoming months that highlight the vibrancy and diversity of Washington, DC.

About Jabari C Jefferson

Jabari C Jefferson is a mixed media oil painter based in Washington, DC. His vibrant, multimedia paintings are layered with found mixed media material such as books, fabric, paper, ink, acrylic and oil paints. His process involves searching local Black communities for once-owned items and repurposing them into usable pieces that add to his overall palette of materials. Inspired by ritualistic practices, Jabari believes in the transfer of energy in the materials from their previous owners.  The subject of the work is self-education, self-development and learning self-identity.

The goal is to communicate what the process of learning looks like. The artist uses the symbolism of a library of books to promote the message of mentally and spiritually enhancing ourselves through reading, reflecting and learning. The primary intended audiences are Black communities due to lack of representation in these categories of artistic conversation. Jabari’s ongoing body of work, The Library Series, draws attention to the pursuit of understanding who we are, and transitioning into a deeper more complex way of interpreting the world around us. Metaphorically, we are all living libraries composed of experiences, wisdom, history and heritage. The aesthetics of a traditional library were instilled in him as a young man by his father, a librarian at the Library of Congress, and his grandfather, a retired archivist for The National Archives. Having constant access to an impressive assortment of books around him inspired the aesthetic of multi-coloured vertical compositions and the optic effect they created.