ART OMI
June 20 – July 15, 2024
Open Studios Saturday July 13
I’m delighted to share that this summer at Art Omi: Artists, I will be an artist-in-residence as the Charlotte Street Foundation Fellow. The residency, near Ghent in upstate NY, will have studios open to the public on July 13. I’m looking forward to creating new work in a distinguished context with international artists, Critics-in-Residence, and visiting arts professionals. While in residence, I will create new art that connects my past site-responsive installations with my most recent work: drawing with plaster. My work addresses the symbiotic relationship between the human body and architecture. The installations invite viewers to understand the world through bodily senses and ways of knowing that are often private and experiential. During the residency, I will transform my studio space into an immersive installation with drawings displayed as focal points for contemplation. Thank you to Charlotte Street Foundation, ArtsKC Inspiration Grant, and Kansas City Art Institute for the support to engage with the Art Omi: Artists community.
2022
STATE OF THE ART: RECORD
Upcoming at LSU Museum of Art
On view: March 10–June 19, 2022
State of the Art 2020: Record is an exploration into how contemporary art—produced all across the country and in regions outside traditional art centers—reflects the present moment. State of the Art 2020: Record brings together artists exploring the slippery task of tangling with history, the ways in which art can express concepts when words fail, and how some artists apply rationality to the random. Here, Record speaks to the task of documenting the random, confusing, and sometimes inexplicable, and underscores a desire to return to the existing record in order to reconsider. State of the Art 2020: Record presents a cross-section of artists’ work in the United States today through works created in the past few years. State of the Art 2020: Record is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. The national tour of State of the Art 2020 is sponsored by Bank of America with additional support from Art Bridges. This exhibition and its programming are sponsored locally by a generous grant from Art Bridges.
ARTISTS INCLUDED: David Harper, Damian Stamer, Carla Edwards, Jenelle Esparza, Marcela Pardo Ariza, Kate Budd, Mari Hernandez, Tabitha Nikolai, Enrico Riley, Jordan Seaberry, Diego Rodriguez-Warner, Frances Bagley, Peter Everett, Mae Aur, Alex Chitty, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Jill Downen, Kellie Romany, Nicolas Lobo, and Cory Imig
2020
State of the Art 2020
The Momentary and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announced today that 60 artists have been selected for State of the Art 2020. As part of opening the new contemporary art space, the Momentary, the exhibition will be on view at the Momentary and Crystal Bridges from February 22 through May 24, 2020, free for all visitors.
[read the press release here]
[link]
2019
Here all is Distance, There it was Breath
Solo Exhibition of 45 drawings at Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis
Kansas City Acquires Architectural Folly from a Future Place
Created for Open Spaces; the Exhibition, 2018 and curated by Dan Cameron, the sculpture will remain on permanent view adjacent to the Swope Memorial due to the generosity of the RC Kemper Foundation.
Residency
Thank you to MASS MoCA and Assets for Artists. PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF ARTISTS was an inspiring and generative time to focus on the pedagogy of the studio practice with fellow professors from around the country.
2018
Open Spaces
Curated by Dan Cameron
Kansas City, MO
Body Boundaries
Arte Laguna Prize
Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis announces 2018 Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Awards
Kenneth Steinbach includes Jill Downen in his new book
Creative Practices for Visual Artists: Time, Space, Process
2016
Grant Award
The Santo Foundation has named Jill Downen one of five top grant recipients for 2016. The international call for entry yielded approximately 800 diversified candidates from 33 states of the United States and nearly 40 different countries.
2015
The Charlotte Street Foundation Individual Artist Award Exhibition
October 23 – December 16, 2015
Jill Downen, Rashawn Griffin and Misha Kligman
Opening October 23, 2015
H&R Block Artspace
16 East 43rd Street, Kansas City, MO 64111
[link]
2013
Residency Award
2013-2017
My studio is now located at The Studios Inc: a residency program in Kansas City that supports mid-career artists with studio spaces and program opportunities within the local and national art communities.
[link]
2012
Teaching Appointment
February 22, 2013
I have been appointed Assistant Professor in Sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute. I have relocated to Kansas City and am enjoying the community of colleagues and students. It is an honor to return to the school where I studied painting / printmaking and work with a new generation of artists.
[link]
2011
Museum Acquisition
Tendon on Pallet, 2009, Acquired by The Oklahoma City Museum of Art
2010
Guggenheim Fellowship Awarded
April 26, 2010
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has named Jill Downen among its Fellows for 2010. The 180 fellows were selected from about 3,000 applicants representing artists, scientists, and scholars in the United States and Canada. “Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.” (The New York Times Friday April 16, 2010, A5). Downen’s project will involve research between St. Louis and New York and culminate in the exhibition of a new site-specific installation. To learn more about the fellowship, visit the foundation’s web site at www.gf.org.
