Jessica Drenk - Abstract Sculptures - Paia Contemporary Gallery Maui

Jessica Drenk

Original Abstract Sculptures

About The Artist
Jessica Drenk was the recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.  Her contemporary sculptures and free standing 3d art have been pictured in Sculpture Magazine and seen in shows at the International Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, the Albuquerque Museum, the Tucson Museum of Art, the International Book Fair of Contemporary Creative Books in Marseilles, France, as well as in several national galleries. In 2009, Jessica Drenk received an Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, funding the installation of Archaeologica: A Museum of the Disposable at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona.  In 2010 her work was featured in shows at Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson, Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle, and Aqua Art Miami contemporary art fair in Miami Beach.

Artist Statement
By transforming familiar objects into nature-inspired forms and patterns, I examine how we classify the world around us. Manufactured goods appear as natural objects, something functional becomes something decorative, a simple material is made complex, and the commonplace becomes unique. In changing books into fossilized remnants of our culture, or in arranging elegantly sliced PVC pipes to suggest ripple and wave patterns, I create a connection between the man-made and the natural. In my installations, I combine these seemingly opposite concepts, presenting my artifact-like wall sculptures and 3d objects in small collections of our own natural history. My interests in archaeology, paleontology, biology, botany, and geology influence not only the shapes and textures of my sculpture, but also lend a visual framework for creating, collecting, and classifying my own specimens of the present.

ONE AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS AND INSTALLATIONS:
2012 “Summer Exhibition”, Paia Contemporary Gallery, Maui, Hawaii
2012 Jessica Drenk: Aggregates; Galleri Urbane, Dallas, Texas
2011 “Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
2011 Jessica Drenk, Riverworks Gallery, Greenville, SC
2010 Jessica Drenk: Materials and Balance”, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2010 “Before, During, After”, Catherine Person Gallery, Seattle, WA
2009 Jessica Drenk: Archaeologica, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZ
2009 “Reading Our Remains”, Smith Campus Center, Pomona College, Claremont, CA
2008 “Compelling Matter”, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2007 Jessica Drenk, Beard Arts Center, Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, IN
2007 MFA Exhibition, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
2006 Jessica Drenk: The Turning World; Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2006 “Imprints”, Lionel Rombach Gallery, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
2005 “Reading Our Remains”, Commissioned site-specific public art installation, University of
2005 Jessica Drenk, Arizona Library, Tucson, AZ
2004 “Curious Objects: An Installation by Jessica Drenk”, Forum Gallery, Claremont, CA.
2002 Jessica, Drenk, Thesis Exhibition, Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA
2001 “Remnants”, POSA Gallery, Pomona College, Claremont, CA

GROUP AND JURIED EXHIBITIONS:
2011 Un-Speak-Able, The Art Center, Corvallis, OR
2011 Reconstructions, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2010 Aqua Art Miami, represented by Conrad Wilde Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
2010 Anderson Arts Center, Anderson, SC
2009 Catherine Person Gallery, Seattle, WA
2009 “The Book: Wide Open”, Business of Art Center, Manitou Springs, CO
2009 “Continuum”, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
2008 “Penumbra”, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA
2008 “Book-Art Object 08”, 25th of May Museum, Belgrade, Serbia
2008 Lana Santorelli Gallery, New York, NY
2008 “Book Forms”, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2007 “She Objects II”, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2006 International Sculpture Center’s 2006 Outstanding Student Achievement in
2006 Contemporary Sculpture Awards, Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
2006 Biennial Southwest, The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
2006 Sheldon Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
2006 Art One Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2006 Casa Libre, Tucson, AZ
2006 “Art D’Art”, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
2005 “Arizona Biennial”, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
2005 8th International Book Fair of Contemporary Creative Books, Marseille, France
2005 “Residual Pull”, Dinnerware Contemporary Arts, Tucson, AZ
2005 “Bound and Unbound”, Tohono Chul Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2005 Hayward Area Forum of the Arts, Hayward, CA
2005 “Re-Visions III”, Tohono Chul Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2005 Juried Show, Contents Interiors, Tucson AZ
2004 Alumni Symposium, Pomona College, Claremont, CA
2001 Student Exhibition, Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA

EDUCATION:
2007 Master of Fine Arts, 3-D Area, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
2002 Bachelor of Arts, Art Major, Pomona College, Claremont, CA

AWARDS AND HONORS:
2009 Artist Project Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts
2006 International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary
Sculpture Award
Arizona Artist’s Guild Scholarship
Creative Achievement Award for graduate work in Art, University of Arizona
Coris Family Trust Fine Arts Award, University of Arizona
Albert Haldeman Scholarship, University of Arizona
2005 Centennial Sculpture Award, University of Arizona
Medici Scholars Award, University of Arizona
2004 Graduate College Fellowship, University of Arizona
2002 Phi Beta Kappa, Pomona College, Claremont, CA
Louisa Moseley Fine Arts Prize, Pomona College, Claremont, CA

Publications
2007 University of Arizona MFA Thesis Exhibition Catalog
2006 Sculpture Magazine, October
2006 The Albuquerque Tribune, October 5
2005 Transformations, University of Arizona College of Fine Arts publication
2005 “Arizona Illustrated”, KUAT-TV, PBS, Residual Pull
2005 “Arizona Illustrated”, KUAT-TV, PBS, Arizona Biennial
2003 Pomona College Magazine