In the 1960s, he taught art classes at St. Louis local universities and colleges and remained active in this local community.[6] He was director of program Uhuru at Pruitt and Igoe public housing in St. Louis in 1967 and 1968, a program to bring the low-income African American community a constructive means of developing dialogue through arts programs.[citation needed]
Jackson was affiliated with the multidisciplinary arts collective Black Artists Group (BAG) in St. Louis through his close friendship with BAG co-founder Julius Hemphill, though he was not an official BAG member.[5] BAG was founded by musicians, theater artists, dancers and visual artists as a support structure for creative expression among African American artists, and in order to have a greater place in the cultural landscape.[6]
Jackson’s paintings are based in figural and gestural forms, and often expressionist in nature.[7][8] There are a mixture of cultural references and iconography in his paintings including references to historical African art and European Modernism.[9] Photographs of the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960 in South Africa became an inspiration for Jackson in the development of his figurative gestural forms, and resulted in his Sharpeville Series (1968–1977).[10][8]
1994 — The Exchange Show: San Francisco/Rio de Janeiro, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, and Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2016 — Dimensions of Black, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California, and Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California, Davis, California
^ abBravo, Tony (November 19, 2021). "Oliver Lee Jackson: 'Any Eyes'". Datebook | San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide. Archived from the original on 2022-01-19. Retrieved 2023-05-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ abcde"Oliver Lee Jackson". Seattle Art Museum. Retrieved 2022-02-03. Oliver Jackson taught and lectured in Art, Philosophy, and Pan African Humanities, and was a Curriculum Consultant for the creation of programs in Pan African Studies. He was Art Instructor at St. Louis Community College (1964-67); Curriculum Specialist and Lecturer at Southern Illinois University (1967-69), and lectured on philosophy and aesthetics of African peoples; Assistant Professor of Art, Washington University, St. Louis (1967-69); and Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies, Oberlin College OH (1969-70). He relocated to California in 1971 to teach in the art department at California State University, Sacramento, where he also developed a curriculum for Pan African Studies and lectured in Pan African Humanities. Jackson continued as Professor of Art at CSU Sacramento until his retirement in 2002.
