Post Atlantic — An Evening with Dewey Crumpler

Join us for a dive into the work of painter, philosopher, and SFAI alumnus and former professor Dewey Crumpler. The program begins with a screening of the recent documentary Post Atlantic: The Art of Dewey Crumpler. Directed by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, the film shares the visionary world of Crumpler as he connects the slave trade to modern globalization and demonstrates what it means to be a working artist with a conscience today. The screening will be followed by a conversation between Crumpler and Jordan Stein that digs further into Crumpler’s work, worldview, and the impact of SFAI. Snitow and Kaufman will also be in attendance.

About the Speakers

Dewey Crumpler‘s current work examines issues of globalization/cultural co-modification through the integration of digital imagery, video, and traditional painting techniques. Dewey’s works are in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, de Young Museum, Bank of America Collection at Harvey B. Gantt Center, the California African American Museum, Triton Museum of Art Los Angeles, and the Oakland Museum of California. Crumpler received the Flintridge Foundation Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, as well as the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship. Currently represented by Jenkins Johnsons Gallery, his most recent exhibitions are Dewey Crumpler: Life Studies at The Driskell Center, University of Maryland; “Post Atlantic” at ANDREW KREPS GALLERY; Art Basel Kabinett Sector; and Painting Is an Act of Spiritual Aggression. As of August 2024, the Driskell Center Archive at the University of Maryland, College Park, has become home to The Crumpler Collection, an archive of Dewey Crumpler’s work.

Jordan Stein is a curator and writer based in San Francisco. He is the author of Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts (Pre-Echo Press, 2024), a New York Times Best Art Book of the Year, Rip Tales: Jay DeFeo’s Estocada & Other Pieces (Soberscove Press, 2021), and most recently, Stephen Kaltenbach: Portrait of My Father (J&L Books, 2025). In 2017, he founded Cushion Works, an exhibition space in the Mission District that aims to link past and present through the varied presentation of critical — and often overlooked — artworks, histories, and ideas. He has independently organized exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Artists Space, Yale Union, San Francisco City Hall, The Glass House, Matthew Marks Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, and The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, where he formerly served as curator of special projects.

Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman’s award-winning films include: Post Atlantic; Town Destroyer, about controversial New Deal murals at Washington High School in San Francisco; Company Town, about tech and gentrification in San Francisco; Between Two Worlds, about the Jewish culture wars; Thirst, about struggles to stop the privatization of water around the world; Secrets of Silicon Valley, about the haves and have nots in tech; and Blacks and Jews, about intergroup relations. Their films have been shown in major international film festivals, on public television, to policy makers, and have been used by community groups, clergy, and educators.