#MeettheArtist
Meet Jenny E. Balisle
"Fascinated by alternative realities, disorientation, and flight, I combine disparate experiences to create new narratives, perspectives, and theories. "
Meet Jenny E. Balisle
"Fascinated by alternative realities, disorientation, and flight, I combine disparate experiences to create new narratives, perspectives, and theories. "
1. Tell us your artist story, some biographical info, when did you decide to be an artist? Why do you make art? Where did you study? Etc.
My education consists of a B.A. in Art and Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a M.F.A. from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Selected exhibition highlights include the de Young Museum Artist-in-Residence, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Chicago Cultural Center, Korean Cultural Center, Harvard University, Farmington Museum, Museu Brasileiro Sao Paulo, and Shanghai Oil Painting & Sculpture Institute Art Museum.
Have been fortunate to have my artworks featured in The Huffington Post, WOMENCINEMAKERS, A5 Magazine, ZYZZYVA, The Drum Literary Magazine, and Sculptural Pursuits Magazine. Public art experience consists of The Cube Art Project, Hearts in San Francisco, and South San Francisco Utility Box Mural Project.
Currently, I work as an artist, curator, advocate, writer, lecturer, and instructor at the Academy of Art University and UC Berkeley Extension. Advocacy is an important part of my life and practice. As a result, I serve as Chair on the Richmond Arts & Culture Commission and as a Public Art Advisory Committee member.
2. What do you want people to walk away with after experiencing your work?
When creating art, the focus is how to best implement a concept. Viewers have diverse backgrounds and to predict reactions can be a challenge. The goal is share a researched perspective that explores a version of truth. The art is a tool for communication by facilitating conversation and fostering awareness.
3. What influences your work? Why?
My art practice investigates diverse, interdependent, and symbiotic relationships within natural and manmade environments. Fascinated by alternative realities, disorientation, and flight, I combine disparate experiences to create new narratives, perspectives, and theories. The goal is to identify how patterns and symbols of influence impact perception, social behavior, institutions, history, and truth.
Mediums are repurposed by altering function to explore identity, ideology, and inequality. As a multidisciplinary artist, my practice incorporates drawings, sculpture, site-specific installations, objects, digital, video, and audio. Inspiration, investigation, research, writing, and discovery dictate the final form.
4. What does it mean to you to participate in Hera an exhibiting artist for the In God We Trust exhibition?
Equality in the art world circumvents reality. In a recent The New York Times article titled Female Artists Made Little Progress in Museums Since 2008, Survey Finds, the byline is clear: “In the past decade, only 11 percent of all work acquired by the country’s top museums was by women.” Artists must support and participate in venues that encourage diversity and critical thinking!
In God We Trust: Reflections on Religion in America explores how faith permeates our culture. The exhibition becomes a vigorous investigation beyond aesthetics. My artwork DOES YOUR GOD APPROVE? serves as a historical marker to how the perversion of religion justifies abhorrent behavior and policy today. It’s an honor to exhibit at HERA gallery whose legacy is rooted in education and advocacy.
Links:
To see more of Jenny's work visit her website: http://jennyebalisle.com
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