(b. 1929, Albany, GA) is an artist and founding member of AfriCOBRA, a Chicago-based col-lective of black artists who pioneered socially conscious Black aesthetics. Wadsworth’s pattern-intensive portraits, combining vibrant colors and Black Power slogans, depict his drive for political activism. Along with his wife, Jae Jarell, and the other founding members of AfriCOBRA, Wadsorth’s interest in Transnational Black Aesthetics led them to create one of the most distinctive visual voices in 20th Century American art. The founders’ vision has its roots in the streets, classrooms, studios, and living rooms of the South Side, yet its impact has extended around the world, infl uencing artists such as Kerry James Marshall and Kehinde Wiley. Throughout his career, Wadsworth has celebrated the struggles, strengths, and beauty of African Americans in his art.
Jarrell’s work is in many collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, among many others. He was included in Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power organized by Tate Modern, which traveled to fi ve subsequent venues. Other recent exhibitions include the AfriCOBRA: Nation Time an offi cial collateral event of the 58th Venice Biennale, AfriCO-BRA: Messages to the People at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. In 2020, Wadsworth debuted his book AFRICOBRA: Experimental Art Towards a School of Thought, a defi nitive record of the founding of AfriCOBRA. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and received his MFA from Howard University. In Spring 2026, Wadsworth Jarrell and his wife Jae Jarrell had a new retrospective organized by the Albany Museum of Art in Georgia, curated by Sidney Pettice, and he was recently featured in Edges of Ailey at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, curated by Adrienne Edwards.
