At the Arts Center of Mississippi, Brenden Davis has turned memory, anxiety and the places people inhabit into paintings, sculptures and mixed-media work. One piece, “self portrait (brick by brick),” is made with oil pastel, acrylic and graphite on wood. Its title points to construction without needing a literal wall.

The Jackson artist’s work is on view through Nov. 29 as part of “1 by 1: The Infinite Loop,” a two-person exhibition with fellow Jackson artist Justin Ransburg. Admission is free.

Davis works across painting, animation, digital design and sculptural installation. Buildings, roads, screens and clouds recur throughout a practice concerned with Black interior life and the systems around it.

The materials range as widely as the ideas: fabric and clay alongside paint and graphite, or digital imagery brought into physical space. Davis’s art asks viewers to consider the environments people move through and the thoughts those environments can provoke.

Inside “1 by 1: The Infinite Loop”

The exhibition with Ransburg brings that exploration into public view. Ransburg contributes comics and character-driven images, and Davis contributes abstract landscapes and psychological spaces. Together, the two draw on the languages of illustration, film, sculpture and fine art.

The show includes original work available for purchase, with sales arranged through Davis. Among the pieces listed for sale is “on the fence” (2024), made with acrylic, oil pastel and graphite on wood.

Beyond the Gallery Walls

Davis’s work reaches beyond the exhibition calendar. In 2026, Civil Rights Corps selected Davis for its visual artist-in-residence program, which supports art examining the human consequences of the criminal legal system. Davis’s residency centers the humanity of people affected by incarceration, money bail and systemic injustice.

The current show builds on a run of Jackson exhibitions. Earlier shows include “Delete. Empty Trash.” at Coffee Prose Midtown and “Memory Corrupted: An Exploration of Time and Perception” at the Arts Center of Mississippi. Davis has also taken part in exhibitions associated with the Mississippi Museum of Art.

For anyone curious about the artists working in Jackson now, “1 by 1” is a chance to see Davis’s work in person rather than on a screen. The paintings and sculptures are on view in the same city whose streets and social structures shape the questions they raise. That’s fitting for work that gets built, like that self-portrait, brick by brick.