Jasmine Marshall is a first-year MBA student at the Yale School of Management and a Board Fellow with the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (ECOCA). She submitted the following as a citizen contribution.
In the glass-lined hallways of the Yale School of Management (SOM), a new presence now holds space—an examination of commerce and the complex history of New Haven. On a recent Thursday, the unveiling of Black Governors, a new painting by Detroit-based artist Mario Moore, transformed the typically corporate setting into a site of cultural and communal memory. Light filtered through the windows as guests gathered, drawn in by Moore’s layered depiction of “Black agency” through time, resistance, and labor.
“Black agency is about the history of this country, drawing attention to historical moments,” Moore said during his artist talk. He also referenced “post-traumatic slave syndrome,” a term coined by Dr. Joy DeGruy, calling attention to the linear trauma Black people have endured in America that still impacts us today. Through his work, Moore sheds light on the often overlooked, albeit available, nuggets of history that highlight this phenomenon, driving viewers to pause and reflect.
Moore’s painting was commissioned by Yale SOM following a yearlong collaboration between the artist and the university, supported by The Artsy Fund, which was established through the generosity of an anonymous donor. Drawing from New Haven’s history of slavery and commerce, Black Governors is both a site-specific reflection and a national commentary. In richly textured oil, Moore highlights Black leaders from the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing on innovators in New Haven such as William Lanson, Bias Stanley, and Margaret Stanley.
The remarkable contributions of these entrepreneurs—Long Wharf, neighborhoods, churches—have shaped the New Haven community in many ways.
The result is a visual archive of Black life and leadership: Yale custodians ("Sweeps") are featured alongside references to one of the earliest known images of an enslaved Black woman in America, from the late 1700s. At first glance, the painting captivates with its detail and precision. But with closer examination, its layers begin to reveal themselves, uncovering histories and narratives that reflect Moore’s commitment to “telling multiple stories within one framework.”
A Portrait of Process
During his time in a residency program at Princeton University, for instance, he struck up a conversation with Jalen, a local man who worked outside of the university. What began as a casual chat became the start of a portrait partnership.
“It’s not about making a great drawing,” Moore said. “I’m interested in learning what representation means to them and then working together on the painting.”
This ethos of mutual recognition carries through his practice. When painting figures like Jalen, Moore often produces etchings or prints that he gifts to the subjects. His upcoming contribution to the Ely Center of Contemporary Art's 10th Anniversary Benefit Gala, for instance, is an etching of Jalen, based on the original painting Moore created during his time at Princeton.
“Printmaking started for me when I studied abroad in Italy in undergrad,” Moore said, reflecting on his interest in exploring different mediums.
Art as Resistance
The artist’s own history—growing up in Detroit with a painter mother, attending Malcolm X Academy, and taking an early apprenticeship with an oil painter—grounds his work in both discipline and defiance. His practice resists erasure, asserting Black presence in spaces where it has historically been denied.
Moore recalled a recent episode where a museum board member resigned in protest over a proposed acquisition of his work. The museum acquired the piece anyway, a testament not only to Moore’s artistic talent but also to the role of art in challenging institutional norms and sparking critical dialogue.
Rather than striving for hyperrealism, Moore focuses on texture and luminosity, qualities that reveal themselves as you zoom into his pieces. “I want you to feel like you can enter into the piece,” he said.
In Black Governors, this philosophy becomes visceral. The painting invites the viewer not just to look, but to witness: to consider the legacies of racialized labor, the role of institutions like Yale in shaping those legacies, and the possibilities for reimagining who belongs in spaces of power.
A Living Archive
Attendees at the opening ranged from SOM faculty and students to members of New Haven’s broader arts community. Several lingered near the painting after the talk ended, taking in the details and seizing the opportunity to chat with Moore.
As Moore continues to explore themes of representation, labor, and resistance, his presence in New Haven will live on—not only through Black Governors, but through the etching of Jalen that will soon make its way into another community setting. And for those who walk the halls of Yale SOM in the years to come, Black Governors will remain as a quietly powerful, ever-present, and uncompromising call to remember, reflect, and consider what could be.