Majesty Royale-Jackson
gleamin’: And none is barren among them
NorthStar Church of the Arts is proud to present gleamin’: And none is barren among them, a solo exhibition by Durham-based artist Majesty Royale-Jackson. A multimedia installation combining sculptural forms, a layered sonic landscape, and video projection focused on the mouth, this body of work explores transformation as a technology of survival and self-determination.
At the center, the artist alchemizes tobacco leaves into flamboyant mouth adornments: grillz. Drawing on tobacco’s sacred significance to Black and Indigenous peoples of the Americas and its role as a commodity within colonial economies, particularly in North Carolina, the installation holds these histories in tension.
Southern hip-hop collides with distorted tobacco oral histories and excerpts from dental manuals, using sampling and repetition to destabilize familiar sounds and their associations. In the projection, a mouth lip-syncs as golden light emanates from within. Together, these elements reimagine Carolina tobacco, nicknamed “gold leaf,” as a material for transformation, shifting the idea of gold from an external commodity to an internal luminosity.
Through the creative repurposing of materials, gleamin’ considers how Black and Indigenous people transform the conditions of coloniality into expressions of autonomy, adornment, and possibility.
Selected through a rigorous open call process, this is the third and final exhibition of NorthStar’s 2026 Spotlight Exhibition Series, which supports local emerging artists in producing their first solo exhibition.
The exhibition will feature three free public programs:
+ Opening Reception on Friday, November 13, 5-9PM;
+ Artist Talk as Performance with guest artist Sia Moon, Thursday, November 19, 6-8PM
+ Getting Free Workshop, Sunday, November 22, 1-4PM
With additional open gallery hours:
+ Saturday, November 14, 1-5PM
+ Sunday, November 15, 2-5PM
+ Tuesday, November 17, 2-6PM
+ Friday, November 20, 5-8PM
+ Saturday, November 21, 1-5PM