Bio
Jennifer Lord is a fiber artist, painter, and taijiquan teacher in the Yang lineage. They received their BA from Naropa University and are currently an MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They study and teach T’ai Chi Ch’uan with Rocky Mountain T’ai Chi Ch’uan. They are a student of Sogetsu Ikebana with Kalapa Ikebana. Lord recently completed a residency at Mountain Water, a land restoration project that combines contemplative practice with creative expression. Born in Salt Lake City, they live, work, and teach in Boulder, Colorado. Their work is held in several private collections.
Recent solo/duo exhibitions include Winter Blooms at Alto Gallery, Cryptic Perfume at Razzle Dazzle Museum, Rainbow Above the Ruins with Noah Travis Phillips at Dateline Gallery. Bigger View(s): Earth, Anthropocene, Beauty, an exhibition curated by Lord, was part of the citywide event One Book One Boulder in 2021. A virtual version of Bigger View(s) can be seen at: bit.ly/biggerviews. They have a forthcoming collaboration with the MÚSED fashion house.
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email: juniperlord at gmail dot com
Artist Statement
I am a fiber artist working with time intensive, hand-based processes including: fabric piecing, dyeing, printing, appliqué, hand stitching and embroidery. My work bridges collage and improvisatory quilting using upcycled and remnant fabric, pieces from my own collection, and hand-altered material. In the lineage of feminist and queer hand-making the work demonstrates and celebrates possibility, alterity, and futurity. My work suggests radical alternatives to oppressive constructs by examining and connecting histories of settler colonialism to the contemporary climate crisis, and by forwarding harmony, mutuality, and simultaneity as life-celebrating modalities.
Painting Statement
Speculative Abstract Rainbow-scapes. A shimmering aesthetic.
I am primarily a painter, but I also work in ikebana, video, sumi, and installation. The central thread of the practice is an expression of the aliveness and harmony of the natural world. I am interested in cultivating a felt sense of beauty in myself and in the viewer. I present simultaneity as a visual method and theoretical philosophy.
Thematically, the paintings grow from the various relationships which have produced the Anthropocene. The work shows the effects humans have had on the environment while foregrounding our radical interdependence with the living Earth. I addresses climate change, natural and environmental disasters, and the epicness of nature through process-responsive gestural painting.
Formally, the accretion and variety of marks within the paintings coalesce to create an ecology. Flowers and landscapes are depicted through vigorous gestures, small marks, staining, monoprinting, and masking. The paintings have their own aesthetic integrity, combining representation and abstraction, gesture and description, chaos and harmony. Ultimately asking, why is the world beautiful?
Jennifer Lord 