Janoi Daley is thinking a lot about transition these days.
In “New Chapter,” her latest exhibit, which opened at Summit Artspace on Friday, Daley, 23, looked to her own experiences with change, from immigrating to the United States from Jamaica as a child to navigating different spaces as a Black woman.
“I think with the whole exhibition, I’m thinking about this idea of a new chapter and transitional periods and walking into something new,” she said, “and how one prepares for that, and how I grew up understanding that something is about to switch.”
“New Chapter” is Summit Artspace’s 2025 BIPOC+ exhibit. Daley was selected from a pool of 18 applicants to receive a $1,000 stipend to assist with the creation of a solo exhibit. “New Chapter” will be on view in the art nonprofit’s gallery space through June 14.
In the 10 pieces that make up the exhibit, Daley uses bold, saturated colors to depict scenes that are dark and defiant, but always striking.
In the self-portrait “cooking for my nine-nite,” Daley looks calmly at the viewer — with eyes steadfast and posture straight — while a gun is pointed at her head.
“There is this looming idea of death with being a Black woman in America for me,” Daley said of her inspiration for the piece. “I don’t think it’s necessary to always be pondering on death, but I think that death is something that is real, very real within the community. And not death by our own hand, but outside forces. And I think to not acknowledge it is to kind of [be] caught off guard in a way.”
In “Watch Johncrow,” the subject stands defiantly with her mouth open and her arms wide. In one hand, she holds a machete. Above her flies a turkey vulture, and next to her, a small fire burns in a chair.
When creating the piece, Daley said she thought about Jamaican poet Louise Bennett-Coverley. Known as “Miss Lou,” she performed poems and folk songs in Jamaican Patois, the same language Daley grew up speaking. In “Long Time Gal,” Bennett-Coverley references a “peel head John crow,” or turkey vulture.
“The turkey vulture in Caribbean, specifically Jamaican cultures, is seen as something that eats the dead, but also colloquially, the term John crow can be used to describe a person of bad intent, or a person that does something and there’s no rhyme or reason as to why they did the thing that they did,” Daley explained.
When reviewing submissions for the exhibit, jurors Nick Lee and Amber N. Ford said Daley’s use of color and the interweaving of her personal history in her work stood out to them.
“It was very bold and direct,” Lee said of Daley’s work. “It just felt really fresh for her.”
“I know that Janoi uses inspiration from her own personal heritage and history,” said Ford. “It creates an easy pathway for her to create a plethora of works within this particular body.”
For Daley, creating “New Chapter” allowed her to ease back into painting. She took a short break after graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art last year. She splits her time between Ohio, where she is currently looking for a job, and Maryland, where she settled with her family after moving to the U.S.
“I think that taking the time to make this body of work has been very insightful for me. … It’s an act where I’m very mindful of what I’m doing, and I feel like I’m not painting alone, in a sense,” she said. “There’s this peace and solitude in making the work.”