About Rebekah Jacob
REBEKAH JACOB launched her art brokerage and consulting enterprises with a mission to promote and place museum-quality fine art and photography of the South and Latin America, particularly Cuba, in key collections. Jacob selects inventory based on scholarship, market trends, and investment opportunities for both seasoned and emerging collectors. Jacob has curated critically acclaimed, groundbreaking exhibitions with a commitment to advancing research and scholarship in these genres, always sourcing the best inventory available through professional networks and extensive travel.
An expert in the diverse art and photography of the South and Latin America, Rebekah Jacob has created her eponymous enterprise with skilled enthusiasm and a deep, personal knowledge of all aspects of the art market. Combining dedicated scholarship with practical experience, Jacob earned a B.A. in English and M.A in Art History at the University of Mississippi and later taught Art History with a Southern focus there and at two other universities. She holds a Certificate in Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts from New York University and is a Certified Member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA).
Jacob strives to represent, exhibit, appraise and broker art works by eminent artists and estates from the South . She has curated innumerable exhibitions and special projects that explore the Civil Rights and Martin Luther King era by photojournalists James Karales, Ernest Withers, Bob Adelman, among others. With a longstanding commitment to develop scholarship about the American South and its controversial past, Jacob collaborated with Monica Karales, Executrix of the James Karales Estate, to co-edit and published Controversy and Hope: The Civil Rights of James Karales (University of South Carolina Press, Columbia).
Well-versed in the emerging art scene of Cuba, Jacob saw an opportunity to juxtapose the work of the two regions and has curated several exhibitions of Southern and Cuban artwork in both Havana and throughout the Southeast. Projects have included a show of Southern photographer Milly Moorhead West at the 2000 Cuban Biennale and later at the Bacardi Museum in Santiago. Jacob has also curated exhibitions of renowned modern Cuban photographers--such as Alberto Korda, Osvaldo Salas, Roberto Salas, and Raul Corrales--at the Southside Gallery in Oxford, Mississippi, as well as her eponymous gallery. Spring 2008, in collaboration with the Center for Cuban Studies, Jacob curated a multi-media exhibition Beyond the Door at the Avery Institute, which included five Cuban artists living and working in the land of their birth.
Jacob has brokered and consulted on fine art and photography to top-notch private and corporate collections, as well as revered cultural institutions--such as the Mississippi Museum of Art, Gibbes Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Art, (Mississippi) University Museum, i.e. At the helm of Charleston’s visual art and fashion scenes, she has been included in Charlie Mag’s “50 Most Progressive” and Charleston Magazine’s “10 Most Stylish” lists. Jacob has served as a founding board member of the Gibbes Museum’s Society of 1858 and as selected juror for publications highlighting top emerging Southern artists such as the Oxford American. She has been a contributor /consultant on NPR (National Public Radio), as well as many local and national television programs. Jacob's latest essay, "Southern Modern," can be found in Charleston: Salt and Iron, a compilation of writings by Southern creatives.
A veteran in the Art World with over twenty years of experience, Jacob is the South's premier dealer and consultant in fine art and photography of the South and Latin America, particularly Cuba. Her personal collection and holdings range from rare, vintage early 20th century documentary Cuban photography to acclaimed selections by lauded contemporary artists living and working in the land of their birth. Always seeking out the very best talent and inventory through active roles in professional organizations, travels, and a strong personal/ professional network, Jacob strives to present a selection of rare, high-quality work to a wide audience of art enthusiasts with her trademark passion and dedication.