The subject of Jordan Casteel’s Ourlando is a suit shop owner on 125th Street in Harlem. Casteel’s main subjects are black men. Her images resist stereotypes and false narratives about black men in the United States, as her paintings stem from real-life encounters.

The sitters in Casteel’s paintings are people she has met in her neighborhood and she often photographs them at the site where they met. Building on the intimacy established during the impromptu photoshoot and conversation, Casteel then uses those reference photographs to create a painting that simulates the connection she first felt with her subjects.