Lisa Jarrett was born in 1977 in Morristown, New Jersey. Growing up as a Black American who moved with her family to various, often conflicting political climates in cities in Texas, Minnesota, and New York, the influences of her upbringing in a post-Civil Rights and increasingly so-called “post-racial” America are apparent in her work, which seeks to confront ideas of racial difference and perceptions of racial equality.

Though conflating comparisons of self and Other within a racial context are surely not limited to the American Black Experience and can be examined in myriad global racial milieus, Jarrett’s work is typically centered upon deconstructing, defragmenting, and, in turn, reconstructing and reassembling her personal experiences as a Black woman in America into a visual expression that asks viewers to consider their own roles in present-day race relations.

Jarrett maintains a studio in Portland, Oregon, where she continues to teach classes in art at Portland State University's School of Art + Design. She exhibits nationally and currently has work in the Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate exhibition, which is slated to tour nationally through 2014.