Jennifer Chenoweth

Jennifer Chenoweth is a creative force to behold. You will always be delighted with her art–whether it is the diversity of materials, range of ideas, variety of topics, or just her sheer determination to make it all happen. Jennifer's process is about the journey and where it will take her. She offers an opportunity for you to experience something new.

Biography Jennifer Chenoweth’s artistic inquiry into the creative process and use of materials parallels the philosophic inquiry of becoming and being. She incorporates all approaches of art making in mixed media, from careful rendering in oil paint, to casting concrete in modular forms, to outsourced fabrication with industrial finishes.

Her recent work has been shown at The People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010); at the Courtyard Gallery for a solo show, and at the Creative Research Lab in group shows at The University of Texas at Austin; at her studio and home for the East Austin Studio Tour since its inception in 2003; at Decorazon Gallery in Dallas, Texas producing a collaborative show Shine + Burn: Chenoweth & Campbell in 2008, and at art fairs in London, Miami, and Santa Fe in 2008 and 2009. She was a presenter for Pecha Kucha Austin Vol. 8. Past work has been shown in Kansas City, Santa Fe, San Antonio and Houston.

She is currently a panelist for the City of Austin’s Art in Public Places program, and is a WBE certified vendor through the City of Austin as Fisterra Studio. She works in Austin, Texas in her studio, and as a member of collaborative design teams, designing and creating commissioned private and public artwork.

Jennifer holds a B.F.A. in Painting and Sculpture from Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri; a M.A. from the “Great Books” program at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and a M.F.A. in Painting from The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. Additionally, Jennifer has taken private studio courses from Sam Scott in Santa Fe and an intensive language course in ancient Greek.

Statement My process depends on persistence, perception and discovery. I plan, write about, and execute each piece carefully. I strive to articulate how the meaning should take form in every detail, from the particular pigments to the action of the composition, to the order of the layers and the variety of methods I employ.

My paintings include elements of cartooning and prettiness, as well as areas of control that come from my deep interest in the history of painting, for example, layers of complex glazes next to an illustrated form, indirect painting and brushy gestures. Shapes are rendered, branded, stamped, and rigorously reproduced from projections but made to look like random marks. Taped edges are combined with planned drips, spray paint, and outlines. Paintings are on wood panel, metal cutouts and dimensional forms.

My sculptures and wall installations are often dimensional explorations of shapes that are invented in quick brushstroke in a painting or drawing. I try to imagine their shapes and sizes, and how they exist in relation to the scale of your body seeing the work. I use whatever materials are right for the piece: metal, wood, plaster, concrete, glass, clay, fabric, vinyl.

Seen together, the work shows the evolutions of shapes through multiple processes, iterations, sizes and materials. I incorporate methods that appear easy but are labor-intensive, and make icons out of what originated as quick gestures. I question the eidetic reading of shapes, whether the abstract forms reference known objects, or if it is possible that an imagined shape is unique and can elicit its own visceral response.

Read more in an interview with Jennifer on the Artmuse blog.