Jennifer McCandless ( She/her )

My current work, which employs a sort of Magical Realism, is a collection of ceramic sculptures using humor and satirical narratives to challenge viewers to examine their perspectives on constructions of identity and societal norms. The pieces offer a social critique of how we see ourselves, interact with one another, and interpret the ills of the world. My fascination with human behavior is cultivated in the study of the figure. The expressive quality of clay is used to take dark personal and social realities and offer playful, ironic or damning commentaries. Our relationships to ourselves, each other, death, religion, nature: these are everyday topics, but are often rather unpalatable to think seriously and critically about. Art allows me to slow down a daily media barrage of superficial ideas and contemplate through sculpture a point of view, communicating, hopefully through humor, my frustrations and thoughts.

Artist Profile:

Jennifer McCandless(she/her), born 1967, Detroit, MI.

Jennifer received her BFA in Sculpture from Otis/Parsons School of Art and Design and her MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with full fellow post graduate Studies at Skowhegan in 1995.She recently segued into full time sculpting after serving as Art Department Chair, Curator and Director of the Mercy Gallery and a Nichols Fellow in Art at Loomis Chaffee and before that Adjunct Professor in Ceramics and Sculpture at Wayne State University, Department of Ceramics. Jennifer has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Michigan Council for the Arts Individual Artist Grant, The Palmer Fellowship 2011- 2015 and the Skowhegan Fellowship. The work created for her solo show Run Amok at A.I.R. was supported by both Creation and Development grants from the Vermont Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her extensive exhibition history includes shows at the National Sculpture Society, the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, The Lemberg Gallery, the Housatonic Museum, the John Sly Ely Museum, the Elmhurst Art Museum, Hyde Park Art Center, The Frederick Meijer Museum and X Contemporary in Miami. Her satirical work was featured in Fahrenheit 2018 at the American Museum of Ceramic Art. She was recently an artist in residence at Abba House (Ghana), MassMoCA, The Millay Colony, and ChaShaMa North. Jennifer is also an Eco Artist, creating outdoor sculptural works that double as pollinator habitat in consultation with scientists and students at both the UVM and Middlebury College as well as the Xerxes Society in designing for specific species. She was an official Community Partner of the Middlebury College Environmental Program in 2023, working with student scientists in testing designs and creating educational materials. This research was supported by a New England Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2023.  Recently, her sculptures were featured in the exhibition New Now: Strange States (representing Vermont)at the Shelburne Museum, Fahrenheit 2024 at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Essential Figure at Burlington City Arts and Write Me Letters at AIR, NY. She is represented by A.I.R. in Brooklyn, NY,  Soapbox Arts in Burlington, VT and ArtAxis.