Jenny Kendler

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Jenny Kendler (born 1980, New York City) is an American interdisciplinary artist, environmental activist, naturalist & wild forager who lives and works in Chicago and various forests. Her work attempts to "re-story" the relationship between humanity and the natural world through projects on ecological loss, climate change, facing extinction and welcoming otherness in the natural world. Since 2014, Kendler has been the first Artist-in-Residence with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).^[1] Some notable projects include Music For Elephants,^[2] Tell it to the Birds^[3][4]', Sculpture---> Garden,^[5] One Hour of Birds^[6] and Milkweed Dispersal Balloons.^[7] Kendler is part of a cross-disciplinary team that was awarded a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Humanities Without Walls^[8] initiative to present her public art and community-engagement project Garden for a Changing Climate^[9][10][11] in 2018. Kendler is a co-founder of the artist website platform OtherPeoplesPixels,^[12] has served as a board member for several grass roots art organizations in Chicago, and was named one of Chicago's Top 50 Artists by Newcity in their biennial list in 2018^[13] and 2020.^[14]

Education[]

Kendler's formal art studies began at the Maryland Institute College of Art where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (summa cum laude) in 2002.^[15] Kendler continued her art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in 2006.^[16] Upon completing her graduate studies, she remained in Chicago to build her studio practice.

Career[]

Exhibitions[]

Kendler’s work often takes the form of large-scale, often interactive, outdoor works or community co-created projects in 'unconventional' locations such as a Costa Rican tropical forest, an Arizona desert, a series of Chicago neighborhoods or in the fern room at the Lincoln Park Conservatory.^[17] She also presents exhibitions, projects and workshops at cultural venues including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery,^[18] the Pulitzer Arts Foundation,^[19] the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,^[20] the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art,^[21] the DePaul Art Museum,^[22] the Kochi-Muziris Biennale,^[23] the Chicago Biennial at the Elmhurst Art Museum,^[24] the Terrain Biennial^[25] and Exit Art—with upcoming projects at the Arts Club of Chicago and at Storm King Art Center for their 2018 exhibition on climate change.

Residencies[]

Kendler has completed numerous artist residencies nationally including ACRE Residency in Steuben, Wisconsin in 2010, BOLT Residency at Chicago Artists' Coalition (CAC) in 2011-2012. Internationally she has completed residencies through the Pacific Foundation in Nosara, Costa Rica in 2016 and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada in 2018.

Museum exhibitions[]

Kendler opened her first solo museum exhibition, Jenny Kendler: The Long Goodbye^[26], in January of 2021 at the MSU Broad Museum. This exhibition includes works such as the Amber Archive^[27] and Shell Game (Forget Me Not)^[28] that center on the notion of value and how we assign it. "In creating the different “heirlooms and archives” on display, Kendler upends our expectations and invites us to reflect on our own values, and how they impact the health of the planet."^[29]

Awards^[30][]

• Named #36 in the biennial Art 50: Chicago’s Artists’ Artists / Newcity / 2020
• Named #47 in the biennial Art 50: Chicago’s Artists’ Artists / Newcity / 2018
• NRDC Wildlife Opportunity Fund Grant / for Birds Watching at Storm King Art Center / 2018
• Andrew Mellon Foundation, Humanities Without Walls Grant / $140k for Garden for a Changing Climate in collaboration with Gallery 400 / 2017–2018
• Goethe Institute Chicago Grant / for Deep Time Chicago collective projects / 2016–2018
• Pacific Foundation Grant / for GREEN ZONES / 2015–2018
• Theo Westenberger Estate Foundation Arts & Environment Grant / 2015
• SxSW Eco 'Place by Design' Finalist for Field of Vision: A Garden for Others / Austin, TX / 2015
• Rauschenberg Foundation Grant / for Milkweed Dispersal Balloons / 2014
• Chicago Tribune ‘Best Photos of the Year’ / 2014
• Newcity Magazine’s ‘Chicago’s Best Dressed Artist’ / 2013
• Gold Addy’ Award / for art for Center for Biological Diversity’s Endangered Species Condoms / 2011
• Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Finalist Award / 2006

Public and significant collections^[30][]

• Dom Museum Wien, Otto Mauer Contemporary (Vienna, Austria)
• The Nevada Museum of Art's Center for Art + Environment (Reno, NV, USA)
• Storm King Arts Center (New Windsor, New York, USA)
• The Eden Project (Cornwall, UK)
• DePaul Art Museum (Chicago, IL, USA)
• Victoria & Albert Museum, National Arts Library of London (London, UK)
• Brown University (Providence, RI, USA)
• Chicago Park District (Chicago, IL, USA)
• Yale University, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library (New Haven, CT, USA)
• Tufts University (Medford, MA, USA)
• Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY, USA)
• Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA, USA)
• Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest (St. Louis, MO, USA)
• University of Illinois (IL, USA)
• The Joyce Foundation (Chicago, IL, USA)

References[]

External links[]

• Acclaimed Chicago Artist Jenny Kendler is NRDC's First Artist-In-Residence
• Jenny Kendler puts ethics, empathy in art Chicago Tribune
• A Eulogy for Elephants Chicago Magazine
• How one activist combines impactful art and advocacy to save the Earth Mashable
• How Artists And Environmental Activists Both Do Better Together
• Can Balloons Save Butterflies? Pulitzer Exhibit Artist Wants To Find Out KWMU
• Realizing Human Relationships with Nature through Art Chicago Gallery News

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