Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » jen11: eleven artists named jennifer

renninger-top1
do people with the same name share the same artistic sensibilities? well, the jen11 show taking place next month at artstream gallery hopes to find the answer that question. eleven artists, all named jennifer, were intrigued by sharing the same named and wondered if their “jeneration” unknowingly grew to be ‘creators of culture in their own particular way’. this traveling show starts at artstream in april and continues to uppercase gallery in canada for june, then ends at composition in colorado in september. each artist will be sharing their work, as well as contributing to a visual dialogue about this particular generation of women born with the same name (more than a million children were named jennifer in the course of 15 years, leading business publications to refer to them as “the jennifer demographic”). [work above by jen renninger]

maestre-top
[work by jennifer maestre]

will their be similarities? a collective sense of their own connectedness? or is a name just a name? if you’re near one of the galleries i highly suggest checking out the show- it sounds like a simple, but intriguing idea for a show and i hope to check out the first leg at artstream. if you’re not near one of the galleries you can check out the jen11 website right here. a list of the participating artists is below:

jenifer altman
jennifer bradford
jen celio
jennifer garrido
jennifer gotch
jennifer hsieh
jennifer maestre
jennifer khoshbin
jennifer mcneely
jennifer renninger
jennifer judd-mcgee

gotch-top1
[work by jen gotch]

thank you so much for writing about the show(s), grace. i am really excited to see all of the work together next month.
janine at uppercase has also made a book in support of the show, which i think will be just as wonderful as everything else she has her hands in.
http://shop.uppercasegallery.ca/products/jen-11

One of my my favorite artists in the whole world is jennifer davis:
http://www.jenniferdavisart.com/
also, they should play Mike Doughty’s “27 Jennifers”:
“I went to school with 27 Jennifers
16 Jenns, 10 Jennies, and then there was her…”

The concept of this show reminds me a lot of this documentary by Alan Berliner, where he invites every person in the world named Alan Berliner to a dinner party at his house. There ends up being 13 Alan Berliners around a big table. It’s a fascinating exploration of “what’s in a name.”

Wow, this is great! Although I’m surprised to see that the über talented Jen Stark (www.jenstark.com) is missing from the list. Her paper sculptures and Jeniffer Maestre’s pencil sculptures would make an unbelievable pair!

Write a Comment:

Design*Sponge reserves the right to restrict comments that do not contribute constructively to the conversation at hand, contain profanity, personal attacks or seek to promote a personal or unrelated business.