Artist's Statement
Through my sculpture, I attempt to give concrete form to intangible sensations and early bodily experiences. This is accomplished by creating hybrid forms of mixed origins of experience - fusions of animate and inanimate worlds, simultaneously familiar yet strange. Body fragments, tools, vegetative processes, and microscopic life fuse, mutate, and morph, and exist in a world in which the symbolic and literal intertwine. The resulting objects invite recognition, while remaining mutable, suggestive, and indeterminate. These forms refer to visual, tactile, and auditory perceptions which are viscerally vivid, and recall a form of cognition which corresponds to a pre-linquistic state, where the distinctions between things are not yet clear, and where the boundaries between identities are still fluid, before words begin to name, categorize, and thereby distance experience. Visceral experiences of longing, repulsion, fear, loss, curiosity, and discovery can all be located in a singular object or in a grouping.
My work has its roots in many historical influences. Archeology, Surrealism, Pop Art, and Animation have all influenced my work. The sensual and pneumatic forms of Disney and animation and the simple, bold forms and bright colors of a Pop sensibility are fused with the psychological overtones, disjunctures, and the dislocations of identity created by Surrealism and the fragmentation and archaic content found in archaeological remains.
Grants/Residencies/Awards
2009 Mino Artist Residency, Japan
2007 PA Council on the Arts Sculpture Fellowship Grant
2006 Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant
2001 Printmaking Council of New Jersey - Artist Grant Fellowship
1999 PA Council on the Arts - Sculpture Fellowship
1999 Leeway Foundation Grant - Outstanding Accomplishment in Sculpture, Philadelphia, PA
1998 Mid/Atlantic Foundation - Artist as Catalyst Grant
1998 Sculpture Discipline Finalist - Pew Fellowships in the Arts
1996 New Forms Regional Grant - Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
1996 Yellow Springs Artist Residency, Chester Springs, PA
1995 Sculpture Discipline Finalist - Pew Fellowship in the Arts
1995 Mid Atlantic/NEA - Artist Residency Rutgers Innovative Printmaking Workshop
1994 Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, Chicago, IL
1993 Mid Atlantic/NEA- Visual Artist Fellowship
1991 Yaddo - Artist Residency - Saratoga Springs, NY
1990 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts -Visual Artist Fellowship
1980 National Endowment for the Arts Sculpture Assistantship Grant
Selected Solo Exhibtions
2009 Mino Washi Museum, Mino, Japan
2006 Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Springs, Maryland
2005 Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ
2002 Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA
American Museum of Papermaking, Atlanta, GA
2001 Abington Art Center - Sculpture Garden - Installation
2000 Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
1999 Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA
1999 D.F.N. Gallery, New York, NY (Collaborative Project)
1998 The Kitchen, New York, NY (Collaborative Project)
1998 Southwest Crafts Center, San Antonio, Texas
1997 Language Plus, Quebec, Canada
1997 Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA
1997 Lehrman Arts Center Gallery, Harrisburg Area Community College, Harrisburg, PA
1996 A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY
1996 Franklin & Marshall University, Lancaster, PA
1996 Hand Workshop, Richmond, VA
1995 Dieu Donne Gallery, New York, NY
1995 Manchester Craftsmens Guild, Pittsburgh, PA
1993 Douglas University, “Women Artists Series”, New Brunswick, NJ, catalog
1992 Fleisher Art Memorial, “Challenge Exhibition”, Philadelphia, PA
Group Exhibitions
2009
Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Abington Art Center, "Forever Young”, Abington, PA
Woodmere Art Museum, “Nine Sculptors”, Philadelphia, PA
Michener Art Museum, “Pulp Function”, Doylestown, PA
Philadelphia Art Alliance, “Revolution”, Philadelphia, PA
2008
Painted Bride Art Center, “Am the Rhythm, Philadelphia, PA
Delaware Valley Art Alliance, “Body and Soul”, Narrowsburgh, NY
2007
Fuller Craft Museum, Brocton, MA
2003
Memphis College of Art, “Somatic”, Memphis, TN
2002
SOFA “Visual Perspectives - 14 Years of Virginia A. Groot Awards”, Chicago
2001
London Crafts Council Gallery, “On Paper”, London, England
Abington Art Center ,”Processing the Signal”, Abington, PA
Painted Bride Art Center, “Facing Each Other: Prints Concerning Identity”, Philadelphia, PA
2000
Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Rijswijk Museum, “Holland Paper Biennial 2000, Rijswijk, Holland
Monique Goldstrom Gallery, “Surrealism”, New York, NY
New Jersey Center for the Arts, “On the Horizon”, Summit, NJ
1999
Philadelphia Art Alliance, “Leeway Foundation Grant Recipients”, Philadelphia, PA
Society for Arts and Crafts, “Social Fiber”, Boston, Mass
Henry Street Settlement, “Funkshun”, New York, NY
Kutztown University, “Four Sculptors”, Kutztown, PA
1998
Royal Scottish Academy of Edinburgh, “Trans-Atlantic Connections - 12 Americans”, Scotland
Delaware Art Museum, “Biennial ‘98”, Wilmington, Delaware
Hillwood Art Museum, “Compulsive Obsessive Order”, Long Island University, Long Island, NY
Fleisher Art Memorial, “Challenge at 20”, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Art Alliance, “In the Heart of the City”, Philadelphia, PA
1997
Painted Bride Art Center, “Precious Objects”, Philadelphia, PA
A.I.R. Gallery, “Generations”, New York, NY
Gallery Joe, “Virtual Objects and Embodied Images”, Philadelphia, PA
1996
Henry Street Settlement, “Multiples”, New York, N.Y.
Allentown Art Museum, Group Exhibiton, Allentown. PA
Dieu Donne Galllery, “Paper in Disguise”, New York, NY
Hand Workshop, “B.A.B.Y.”, Richmond, VA., catalogue
Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University, “25 Years of Feminism”, New Brunswick, NJ
Gallery Joe, “Small Works”, Philadelphia, PA
1995
Snug Harbor Cultural Center, “In Three Dimensions-Sculpture of the 90’s”, Staten Island, NY
80 Washington Square East Gallery, New York University, “Small Works Show”, New York, NY
1994
Laguna Gloria Art Museum, “Self Possessed”, Austin, Texas, curated by Lynn Zelevansky
K & E Gallery, “Boxes”, New York, NY
Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, “Outside From Within”, Philadelphia, PA
Payne Gallery, Moravian College, ”Contemporary Sculpture”, Bethlehem, PA catalog
Allegheny College, “Issues of Abstraction”, Meadville, PA, catalog
Chester Springs Studio, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”,Chester Springs, PA
University of Delaware,” Biennial”, Juror: Geno Rodriguez, Newark, Delaware
S.S. White Building, “Sum and Parts “, Philadelphia, PA
1993
Delaware Art Museum, “Biennial 93”, Wilmington, DE
Musee du Pays et Val de Charmey, “Triennial 93”, Charmey, Switzerland
Works in Public Collections
Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ
Leeway Foundation, Philadelphia, PA
Abington Sculpture Garden, Abington, PA 2001-2003
Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Suny, New Paltz, New York, Public Commission 1999
Wolf, Block,Schorr & Solis-Cohen Law Firm
Mosby Publications, Philadelphia, PA
Museum of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
Teaching Experience
1981- Present: University of the Arts, Professor of Sculpture, Philadelphia, PA
2002: Swarthmore College, Swathmore, Pa. - Visiting Assistant Professor
1996 and 1994:Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA - Adjunct Faculty
1990-1995: Annenberg Center, University of Pennsylvania, Arts in Education, Philadelphia, PA
Education
1979 MFA New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
1976 BFA Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA
Jeanne Jaffe
393 Martin Street
Philadelphia, PA 19128
215.487.1072
JFJaffe@aol.com
