About

Contact via Social Media:
@JenniferWester / @ArtConfessional / @CurateYourWeeds / @ARTBseries  

The artist in relation to the art:

“As an artist, my mission is to inspire wonder and curiosity. I mainly do this through the building and subsequent breaking of systems, which I have invented or observed. Much of this results in a kind of modernist esthetic, the direct result of striping away embellishment to look at structures and processes. As of late, I am most specifically interested in growth and maintenance systems, specifically in relation to the human body. The destructive and re-structive nature of these processes produce memories, movement sequences, marks, scars, and remnants that amount to a kind of personal archeological residue. These are not sentimental but physical — spatial recognitions of inhabitation and story.”
~J.Wester

Wester is a multidisciplinary artist working to affect perceptions through relief sculpture, painting, and performance art. Her work visually embraces chaos while often being created in an extraordinarily orderly, premeditative, and processed manner. The tensions between her organic human executive modality and an idealization of a mechanical perfection can be found in many of Wester’s pieces; whether in the residue of a motion on a thin canvas of plasticized paint, an asymmetrical charcoal drawing charting the rotation of opposing limbs, or a delicately composed sculptural work jutting from the plane, still visible, in which it once lay, persistent concepts of action, process, and programming arise. 

Highlights in Wester’s career as an emerging artist have been her performance and video-graphic works shown at the SOLUNA Festival in 2018 and the CICA Museum in 2019, grants with the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs in 2019 for her line and action paper art experiences, and receiving a Meadows Award from Southern Methodist University in 2019 to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art.

Based out of Dallas, Texas
“In Texas there was only the horizon she craved.” ~Joan Didion

Yale University B.A. | Computing and the Arts | 2016
Southern Methodist University | M.F.A. 2019-2021

Artist Statement:

“My art facilitates the seeking of discoveries.

I work with light, sound, and surfaces to explore states of awareness, shape ephemeral spaces, and reveal unforeseen realities. My work addresses how perception and behaviors are reciprocal engagements. From making visible the energy that we feel only when in deep concentration, to showing the hidden surface area of a material that can capture volume in unanticipated ways, my work delivers new perspectives of objects, space, and experience. To achieve this, I develop systems to make perceptible that which can otherwise be inherently unstable or difficult to understand. Whether in performance or through presented objects, I seek to engulf the viewer with opportunities for new understandings.”

 

individual areas in Wester’s interdisciplinary arts practice and projects are addressed on their respective pages on this site.

Upcoming Shows/Installs/Exhibits/Festivals:

  • Virtual Installations
  • Solo Shows 
    •  
  • Paper Arts
    • Building Ervay St. | ARTB 
    • Alonso Berruguete Exhibition | Meadows Museum 
  • Performance Work
    •  
  • Installations
    • Chatter & Wit | CHEER! | Nov. 14, 2020 – Jan. 2, 2021 | Joule Hotel | Dallas, TX
  • Group Shows
    • SMU MFA Candidate Show | Spring 2021
  • Teaching Artist Engagements

Awards/Grants:

  • Jones Fund and Zelle Fund Grant | Fall 2020
  • Doolin Fund Grant | Fall 2020
  • Jones Fund and Zelle Fund Grant | Spring 2020
  • Dallas Office of Arts & Culture ArtsActivate 2020 Project Grant | Dallas, TX
  • Jones Fund and Zelle Fund Grant | Fall 2019
  • Doolin Family Art Material Fund Grant | Fall 2019
  • Dallas Office of Arts & Culture Arts Activate 2019-2020 Residency Grant | Dallas, TX
  • Meadows Award | Southern Methodist University | 2019 – 2021
  • MFA Fellowship | Southern Methodist University | 2019 – 2021
  • Office of Cultural Affairs Cultural Vitaliy Program Grant | Dallas, TX | 2019
  • Glasstire Burning Man Artist Ticket & Stipend | 2017

Recent Exhibitions/Installations/Shows:

  • Solo Shows
    • Seeing Time| Reception March 3 at 6:30 pm | March 3 – 25, 2020 | Angelina College ACA Gallery | Lufkin, Texas | North America
    • Cutting Loops| Jan. 6 – Feb. 27, 2020 | Mesquite Arts Center | Mesquite, TX 
    • Restrutive Engagements #2 | Doolin Gallery | Feb. 19, 2020 | Dallas, TX 
    • Breaking Shadows | SOLUNA Festival | May 18, 2018 | Dallas, TX
    • Mater’ium | Umbrella Gallery | March 2016 | Dallas, TX 
  • Paper Arts
    • ARTB at Anita Martinez Rec. Center | Residency 2019-2020 | Dallas, Tx
    • ARTB with West Branch Dallas Public Library | Residency 2019-2020 | Dallas, TX 
    • Restructive Engagements #2 | Feb. 19 | Doolin Gallery | SMU Campus | Dallas, TX
    • ARTB | Mesquite Arts Center | Feb. 1 | Mesquite, TX
    • ARTB | Sept. 29, Oct. 27, Nov. 17, Dec. 22 | Historic | Dallas, Texas
    • Holidays in your hands | ARTB at Noël Marche with Alliance France | Dallas Intl. School | Dallas, TX
    • Cedars in your hands | ARTB at Full City Rooster for Cedars Open Studios 2019 | Nov. | Dallas, TX
    • Cedars in your hands | ARTB with COS | Deep Ellum Creative Market with Decent Collective | Dallas, TX
    • Cedars in your hands | ARTB with COS | Mid-Autumn Moon Festival | Dallas, TX
    • Cedars in your hands | ARTB with Cedars Open Studios at NNO | Oct. 1 | Dallas, TX
    • Dallas in your hands | ARTB with Seniors | Love For Kids | Sept. 25 | West Dallas Multipurpose Center | Dallas, TX
    • Cedars in your hands | Park(ing) Day | Sept. 20, 2019 | Dallas, TX
    • ARTB Kids Create Center | The Other Art Fair | Sept. 19-22, 2019 | Dallas, TX
    • ARTB at Private School Preview | ArborCreek Montessori Booth | Sept. 8 from 2-4p | Greenhill School | Dallas, TX
    • Remembering the Ambassador | Four Corners Brewery | Aug. 21 | Dallas, TX
    • ARTB | Aug. 18 | Back to School Bfast with Historic | Kidd Springs Rec. Center | Dallas, Texas
    • THIS city in your hands | Dallas OCA CVP Project | #DallasInYourHands Spring 2019 | West Dallas, TX | North America
    • Rockin’ Rapsody Downtown Fever | April 19, 2019 | Mesquite, TX | North America
  • Performance Work
  • Sculpture Work 
    • Restructive Engagements #2 | Feb. 19 | Doolin Gallery | SMU Campus | Dallas, TX
    • Restructive Engagements | Owen Arts Center | Dec. 11, 2019 | SMU | Dallas, TX
    • Chillnaughty | Nov. 16 | Boedecker Space | Cedars Union X SMU | Dallas, TX
    • The Other Art Fair | Saatchi Art | Sept. 19-22, 2019 | Dallas, TX
    • SCULPTURE – a Celebration of Art on Henderson | Sept. 7 – Sept. 30 | Dallas, TX
    • N.E.R. | Burning Man 2019 | Aug. 22-Sept. 2 | BRC | North America
    • Identity | ArtCon Seed | June 1, 2019 | Life in Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX | North America
    • Art on Henderson 2019 Collection | 2323 Henderson Ave. | Dallas, Texas | North America
    • LUCKopalooza | LUCK Dallas | Apr. 14, 2019 | West Dallas, Texas | North America
    • COLOR. | March 2019 | Maddrey PLLC | Bank of America Plaza | Downtown Dallas, TX | North America
    • Yayden Pop | Feb. 23, 2019 | Yayden Art Pop-Up Exhibition | Design District, Dallas, TX | North America
    • LUCK Dallas | Dallas, TX | North America
    • Burning Man 2018| Breaking Shadows V2 | Black Rock City, NV | North America
    • ArtCon 12 | Dallas, TX | North America
    • Local Brew & Press | Dallas, TX | North America
    • Drugstore Cowboy | Dallas, TX | North America
    • Life in Deep Ellum | entitled: Microgallery | Dallas, TX | North America
    • Life in Deep Ellum | entitled: Mater’ium | Dallas, TX | North America
    • Yale Art School Green Gallery| entitled: Play | New Haven, CT | North America
    • Yale Art School Green Gallery | entitled: Studio | New Haven, CT | North America
    • Yale 36 Edgewood Sculpture Building/Gallery | entitled: XYTheta | New Haven, CT | North America
  • Video / Projection Work
  • Painting Work
  • Printmaking Work
  • Drawing / Drafting Work
    • WHISTLE | Greece | Europe
    • Kinderboekje Rotterdam | Fall 2018 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | Europe
    • Phobias by ArtCon | Dallas, TX | North America
  • Photography
  • Teaching Engagements
    • Adult Painting Night | Anita Martinez Rec. Center | Feb. 27 | Dallas, TX
    • Teaching Assistant | SMU | Printmaking | Fall 2019
    • Lab Tech Assistant | SMU | Photography Lab | Fall 2019
    • Teaching Assistant | SMU | Painting | Spring 2020
    • Teaching Assistant | SMU | Sculpture | Spring 2020

Additional Information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Wester
https://medium.com/italia-innovation/meet-an-innovator-jenn-wester-5ea4b423850e#.nt96mudzw