Jenny Hager

Upcoming four person faculty exhibit.

Artist Statement

By utilizing abstracted imagery that remains open and slightly ambiguous, I seek to bypass or delay immediate categorization through language structures. Through the centralization of negation and reinterpretation, repainting and redrawing, and a sense of internalized place, I seek to sustain an associative dialogue within the work that enables me to find a space that embodies layers of internal/external, invented/ real, and microcosm/macrocosm. Interest to me as of recent is the investigation of an ambiguous, constructed, and animated landscape that is perhaps created by something other than nature and difficult to place within the every day. The interest to me is the confrontation of something outside of one’s normal experience and the possibility of multiple reactions within the center as well as the periphery of this experience.

I have been working with a symbol system that I feel is universal, but also highly personal. Ambiguity is important within the work, as I find this symbol system to be fluid and I feel that the work takes on different references for different people. I seek to inject subtexts through formal elements such as pressure, asymmetric balance and lack of “finish”.

Jenny E.B. Hager

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EDUCATION

• Masters of Fine Arts, Painting, May 1999.

Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

• Bachelor of Arts, Studio Art, 1993, Knox College, Galesburg, IL.
• Post Baccalaureate, 1994 – 1996, New York Studio School, New York, NY.
• Residency, January 1993, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT.

AWARDS AND HONORS

• Olendorf Residency Sholarship, Professional Artist in Residence, Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI., 2006.

• Career Opportunity Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation, 2006.

• Research and Travel Grant, Knox College, 1999-2000.

• Recipient of Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, 1999.

• Teaching Award, College of General Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 1999.

• GSFA Chairperson’s Merit Grant, University of Pennsylvania, 1997 – 1999.

• Seligmon/von Simpson and Brown Scholarships, New York Studio School, 1995 and 1996.

• Scholarship to the Vermont Studio Center awarded by Knox College Departmental Chairperson. Knox College, January 1993.

• Al Young Scholarship Awards for excellence, awarded by faculty, Knox College, 1992-1993.

TEACHING AND ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

• Professor, 2002 – present. Drawing I and II, Design, Painting.

Santa Monica College, Los Angeles, CA.

• Professor, 2001 – 2004.  Art History; Renaissance through Contemporary, Art Appreciation, Drawing.  West Los Angeles College, Los Angeles, CA.

• Professor, 1999-2000.   Drawing I, II, and III, Painting I and II, and Printmaking.

Knox College, Galesburg, IL.

• Printing Instructor, 1999.  College of General Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

• Curator, MFA Exhibitions, 1998 and 1999, Meyerson Gallery.  University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

EXHIBITIONS

2008

• Galesburg Art Center, Galesburg, IL.

• Santa Monica Arts Studio, Los Angeles, CA.

• “Inquiry”, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

• “All well that begins well and has no end”, 80 WSE Gallery, New York, NY.

2007

• Pharmaka, “Small Wonders 2”, Los Angeles, CA.

• Tarfest, Los Angeles, CA.

• “Art, August, and AC”, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

• LA Artcore Brewery Annex, Los Angeles, CA.

• “Furious! The Angry Show”, Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery, Atlanta, GA.

• Part of Phyllis Green’s project for Pillow Talk, curated by Mery Lynn McCorkle, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

• Primo Piano LivinGallery, “Effimero Meraviglioso”, Lecce, Italy.

2006

• Pharmaka, “Small Wonders”, Los Angeles, CA.

• Perlow-Stevens Gallery, Columbia, MO.

2005

• Cue Foundation, Joan Mitchell Grant Recipient Exhibition, New York, NY.

• Riverside Art Museum, “Off the Wall”, Riverside, CA.

• Chop Shop, Los Angeles, CA.

• Kraft Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

• Santa Monica College Faculty Exhibition, 2002 – present.

2004

• Arena Division 1, in conjunction with “Santa Monica Originals”, Santa Monica, CA.

• Monster.com, Superbowl Commercial, Los Angeles, CA.

• Edgemar Center for the Art, Benefit for Third World Education, Santa Monica, CA.

• Ohm Salon and Gallery, Venice, CA.

• LA Farm, West Los Angeles, CA.

2003

• New Abstraction, Period Gallery, Omaha, NE.

2002

• Virtual Exhibition, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

2000

• Young Talent Exhibition, Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, CT.

• “Sex, Death, and the Subconscious”, Solo Exhibition, Ford Gallery, Galesburg, IL.

1999

• Cohen, Pederson, and Fox Gallery, New York City, NY.

• “Next Exit”, Group Exhibition, Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

• Large Print Exhibition, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

• Solo Exhibition, Blauhaus Independent Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

• MFA Thesis Exhibition, Meyerson Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

1998

• Folio Print Exhibition, Burrison Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

• Tyler University Selected Prints Exhibition, Tyler University, Philadelphia, PA.

1997

• MFA Exhibition, September 1997-1998, Meyerson Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

Slide Registries

• Drawing Center Slide Registry, New York City, NY.

Collections

Riverside Museum of Art Permanent Collection

University of Pennsylvania Hospital

Nick Cave, Performance Artist

Roger and Mary Lou Licht

Rita Taggart

Publications

The City Paper, Philadelphia

Vox, Columbia Missouri