2026
Acrylic monotype on canvas
9 x 16 in / 22.86 x 40.64 cm
€935
——
Charles Jean-Pierre
Washington, D.C., USA
@cjpgallery
“This series grows out of my engagement with Attar's twelfth-century Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, in which a gathering of birds crosses seven valleys in search of a sovereign truth, only to discover that what they sought has always lived within them. I've been drawn less to the mysticism than to the structure: the journey outward is also, always, a journey inward. The series title carries a double meaning I've been sitting with. These are routes written in earth, paths carved by migration, survival, and return. But they are also roots written in earth, inheritances carried in the body, passed forward by those who walked before us. The ground becomes both archive and witness.”
This series sits in conversation with Jean-Pierre’s earlier bodies of work: Chocolate City, Children of the Sun, and Drifting Once Again. His art has been collected by the Embassies of Benin, Niger, Malawi, and Haiti. Jean-Pierre currently serves as an adjunct professor in the Chadwick A. Boseman School of Fine Arts at Howard University (Washington, D.C.) and has taught fine arts at American University. In 2025 he was named Art Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association.
His work has been featured at Nike, The Atlantic, Salt Sundry, Washington National Airport (DCA), The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence, the National Gallery of Art, West Elm; he exhibited at VOLTA Art Fair Basel Switzerland in 2025.
2026
Acrylic monotype on canvas
9 x 16 in / 22.86 x 40.64 cm
€935
——
Charles Jean-Pierre
Washington, D.C., USA
@cjpgallery
“This series grows out of my engagement with Attar's twelfth-century Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, in which a gathering of birds crosses seven valleys in search of a sovereign truth, only to discover that what they sought has always lived within them. I've been drawn less to the mysticism than to the structure: the journey outward is also, always, a journey inward. The series title carries a double meaning I've been sitting with. These are routes written in earth, paths carved by migration, survival, and return. But they are also roots written in earth, inheritances carried in the body, passed forward by those who walked before us. The ground becomes both archive and witness.”
This series sits in conversation with Jean-Pierre’s earlier bodies of work: Chocolate City, Children of the Sun, and Drifting Once Again. His art has been collected by the Embassies of Benin, Niger, Malawi, and Haiti. Jean-Pierre currently serves as an adjunct professor in the Chadwick A. Boseman School of Fine Arts at Howard University (Washington, D.C.) and has taught fine arts at American University. In 2025 he was named Art Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association.
His work has been featured at Nike, The Atlantic, Salt Sundry, Washington National Airport (DCA), The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence, the National Gallery of Art, West Elm; he exhibited at VOLTA Art Fair Basel Switzerland in 2025.