Jean-Marc Superville Sovak is a multidisciplinary artist and teaching professional whose work is deeply rooted in the community around him. His public works include organizing and officiating a “Burial for White Supremacy” (Unison Arts Center, New Paltz, NY), retracing speculative steps on the Underground Railroad across historic sites in the Hudson Valley (Wilderstein Historic Site, Rhinebeck, NY), designing memorials to Afro-Dutch pioneers in colonial New Netherlands (Rockland County Art in Public Places), and “I Draw & You Talk”, a storefront portrait-drawing studio doubling as an oral history project (Matteawan Gallery, Beacon, NY.) His current practice, “a-Historical Landscapes”, involves altering 19th-century landscape engravings to include images borrowed from contemporaneous Anti-Slavery publications.
As Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Jean-Marc has used his work as a platform to discuss topics such as "The American Picturesque in the Age of Abolitionism" at colleges, universities and cultural institutions such as the Loeb Arts Center at Vassar College, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, Bard College Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network (EHCN), Berrie Arts Center at Ramapo College of New Jersey, Westchester Community College Art Gallery, and Olana State Historic Site.
Jean-Marc has earned a reputation as a Reparative Consultant, guiding institutions in considering how they have historically benefited from the legacy of enslaved labor. His most recent project with Ramapo College of New Jersey titled "Stolen Sugar Makes the Sweetest Books" set the stage for considering how future scholarships could benefit students of Caribbean descent.
Jean-Marc’s art has been exhibited at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Arts Westchester, Kingston Sculpture Biennial, Socrates Sculpture Park, Manifesta 8 European Biennial, Fridman Gallery, Transmitter Gallery, and the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.
A graduate of Bard College’s M.F.A. Program in Film/Video, Jean-Marc’s video work has been screened worldwide and is distributed by Videographe, Inc. Jean-Marc’s practice also includes guest curating "We Wear the Mask: Race and Representation at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art." Jean-Marc has been the recipient of a NYFA Strategic Opportunity Stipend and the Alice and Horace Chandler Purchase Award. He serves on the board of Education and Outreach at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and on the board at Unison Arts Center in New Paltz. Jean-Marc works as Museum Educator at Dia:Beacon and Studio Assistant to Marilyn Minter.