About Courtney Jolliff

Courtney Jolliff, artist of Chicago + Detroit, captures the human essences of those two cities through his celebrated work as a Black American painter. A native of Detroit and graduate of Chicago's Columbia College in Chicago, Courtney was discovered as a painter by the renowned artist and collector Raub Welch. Courtney is also a filmmaker, jewelry designer, creator of artistic objects (including hood trophies), and a fashion designer.

Courtney's work has been featured in a number of public art exhibitions, including live-painting events. His work, including special commissions, are housed in many private art collections, including that of family of Muhammad Ali. In 2024, his paintings and hood trophies were featured at the Marvelous Black Boy Art Show in Chicago. Leading up to that, the Hyde Park Herald published a front-page feature on his history, including his survival of a springtime electrical fire that wiped out his studio and nearly all of his yet-unsold works. Some of his current works are responses to the fire.

The son of Floyd and Melissa Jolliff, Courtney descends from a family important to Chicago's history, including being the grandson of civil rights icon Grandma Chicago and nephew to Charles Courtney Jolliff, Jr., artist and model and creator of the “Don’t shoot, I want to grow up!” viral protest art. In his own work, Courtney Jolliff continues the civil rights and artistic legacies of his family, capturing a ground-eye vision of life in two great Midwestern cities.

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