West Side Chicago artist Jeff Rivers'  practice is centered upon creating affective spaces of empathy, particularly in relation to African American culture. His blended media process achieves this with a combination of painting, drawing and photography. A recurrent element in Jeff's practices is the "ontology of Blackness," where he analyzes Blackness as an existential response to the systems of oppression that African Americans have been subjected to. Jeff advocates that Blackness exudes itself in every facet of life from the language, fashion, politics, and structures that make up its culture, and a deeper understanding of Blackness, how it has become both codified and perpetually shifts.