By examining the everyday materials of our lives, my works attempt to negotiate the fragility and mystery of the world, while searching out the sublime and the possibility of wonder. Through collecting objects, accumulating stitches, lines or circles in drawings and sculptures, I am creating worlds to exist within. Separate clusters create moments in time, as if moving from one to the next, or being aware of all that is happening at once.

The materials I use often have individual histories, and are saturated with memory. I like to play on this nostalgia while evoking a promise of renewal and inspiration by careful consideration of the placement and specificity of the objects. The pieces I make all deal in some way with domestic spaces and a search for the fantastical within those spaces. They also deal with, most of all, my continued search to situate myself within the world through my work.

http://jessiehenson.com/

SELECTED SOLO AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012 Casa De Empena, Anonymous Gallery, Mexico City
2011 Old Hotel, The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
reCOVERED, Frosh and Portmann, New York, NY
Insider Art, Davidson Contemporary, New York, NY
Off the Hook, The Dirty Dirty, Brooklyn, NY
Featured, Gallery Nine 5, New York, NY
Scope Art Fair, New York
2010 Semantics Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
Stardust, School for Creative and Performing Arts, Cincinnati, OH
2009 Projects 09, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY
Living & Dreaming - AIM 29, Bronx Museum, New York, NY
Spatial non-fictions, ISE Cultural Foundation, New York, NY
2008 Intimate Abstract, Big Medium Gallery, Austin, TX
Things Lost, Paul Loebach, Milan Furniture Fair, Milan, Italy
Generations VI, A.I.R. Gallery, NY
Reunion, Texas Fire House, New York, NY
Homecoming, ArtWorks Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
The Fungusamongus, The Dirty Dirty, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Selected Stories, Pharmaka, Los Angeles, CA
Can We Go Home Now, Civic Square Building, New Brunswick, NJ
2006 Fresh Look, LAB Gallery, Edison NJ
Welcome Back, Rutgers University, NJ
Firehouse Presents, Texas Firehouse, New York, NY
New York Area MFA Exhibition, Times Square Gallery, New York, NY
2005 First Year, Mason Gross, New Brunswick, NJ
Artery, St Joseph Academy, New Brunswick, NJ
2000 Catherine Loriard Wolfe Foundation, The National Arts Club, NY, NY
Juicy – DC Artists, Blue Elephant Art Center, Washington, DC
Alumni Show, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
1999 Another Home Picture Show, Hemicycle Gallery, Washington, DC
1998 Berlin Exchange, Goethe Institute, Washington, DC
Color Photography, Off White Walls Gallery, Washington, DC
1997 Looking Overseas, Kunstlerwerstatt Bahnof Westend, Berlin Germany
New Sculpture, White Walls Gallery, Washington, DC

GRANTS AND AWARDS

2011 Smack Mellon Hot Pick
2009 VSC fellowship supported by the Joan Mitchell Foundation
2005-07 Teaching Fellowship, Rutgers University
2000 National Arts Club Award
1999 Berthold Schmutzhart Sculpture Grant
1998 Martha von Hirsch Award
1997 Lola Sarnoff Sculpture Award

RESIDENCIES

2011 Create Change Professional Development Fellow, The Laundromat Project
2010 Bemis Center for Contemporary Art
2009 Vermont Studio Center, Full Fellow
2008 Artist in the Market Place (AIM), Bronx Museum

LECTURES and ARTIST TALKS

2010 University of Omaha, Omaha Nebraska
2010 Bemis Center of Contemporary Art, Omaha Nebraska
2009 and 2010 School for Creative and Performing Arts, Cincinnati Ohio
2009 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson Vermont

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Johnson, Ken, “Young Artists Arrive – Rough or Ready”, The New York Times, July 8, 2009
Giovannotti, Micaela, “Living and Dreaming – AIM 29”, exhibition book
Finnegan, Liz, “Obsessing Over Multiple Art Mediums”, Suffolk County News, August 20, 2009
Gelfand, Janelle, “Sculpture at new SCPA will honor Esme Kenney”, Cincinnati Enquirer, November 18, 2009
Thompson, Susan, “Spatial non-Fiction”, exhibition book
Morris, Matt, “Art: Stardust”, CityBeat, September 29 – October 5, 2010
Wilkinson, Howard, “Explosion of Life”, Cincinnati Enquirer, October 3, 2010

EDUCATION

2007 MFA Mason Gross, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1999 BFA, Corcoran School of Art and Design, Washington, DC