Born in New Jersey in 1971, Jenifer Kent received her BFA from Rutgers University in 1994 and her MFA from Mills College in 1999. She currently lives in Siskiyou County, California. Her work is largely inspired by nature and has evolved from installations of wall drawings, collaborations with poets, musicians, and dancers, to discreet drawings on panel. Her work is exhibited throughout the US and has been featured in locations such as the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. Jenifer’s work was included in The Sheltering Sky at the Palo Alto Art Center, the award-winning West Marin Journal, and the Drawing Discourse Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing at UNC Asheville. She illustrated Thich Nhat Hanh’s Moments of Mindfulness and has been awarded residencies at Kala Art Institute, Wildlands, and the Lucid Arts Foundation. Her work is in the Alameda County Arts Collection as well as numerous private collections. She is represented in San Francisco by Dolby Chadwick Gallery and in NY by Garvey Simon.
In thinking of the vastness of time and nature, I’m inspired by organic forms and phenomena – from a tumbleweed to a star system, and in particular, the centrality of the forms we often encounter in the natural world, in our own bodies, and in sacred and spiritual imagery. Sometimes, the central forms I draw reach a state of entropy or explosion, breaking apart from their form and out of organized time. Other times, the geometry and symmetry of form offer a container for the marks to live within and push against.
Through hand-drawn lines, I mark a moment in time physically through the gesture of my hand. Lines, dots, and ovals represent hours of my life as labor, repetition, and meditation. But those moments are also fluid, like the images and flashes of lights, landscapes, faces, sun, and moonrise. Without rulers, the wobbles and shakes that my lines express find each piece hovering between precision and imperfection. Time exists as both a mark on the page and a vast, unknowable experience. I’m curious how those two things can coexist, the vast and the minute, as I attempt to strike a balance between control and chaos.
Nature is my ultimate inspiration, and even within the bounds of abstraction, the forms of flowers, seeds, and stars come through. I hold a deep connection to the land but also to a legacy of making, farming, and machining, and these human histories inform my work and process as much as the trees, seasons, and plants. I hope to inspire a similar connection and reverence for the viewer through meditative and immersive imagery.
Museum Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday:
10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Sunday:
12 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Closed Monday
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