Jennifer West

Professor of Practice, Art / Director, MFA Art

Jennifer West

BIO

Jennifer West (b.1966, Topanga, CA) is a Los Angeles-based artist who has explored materialism in film for more than fifteen years. In 2022, a monograph, Jennifer West: Media Archaeology was published on her work by Radius Books with grant funding by the Thoma Fondation (Santa Fe, NM)  which was launched at the Pompidou in Paris, France during “Typofilm: Jennifer West”. Additionally in 2022,  West produced a 10-screen moving image commission for Programme Mire, Geneva, Cantonal d'art Contemporain. Other significant commissions include works for LIAF Biennial, Norway (2022); Seattle Art Museum (2016-2017); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2016); The High Line, New York, NY (2012); MIT List Visual Arts Center (2011); Aspen Art Museum (2010); and Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London (2009). West has had solo exhibitions at Times Square Arts, New York, NY (2021); JOAN Los Angeles (2020); Contemporary Art Museum St Louis (2018); Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China (2017); Seattle Art Museum (2016-2017); Museo d’Arte  Nuoro, Sardinia (2017); Tramway, Glasgow (2016); S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK (2012); Kunstverein Nürnberg, Germany (2010); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, (2010); Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2008); White Columns, New York, NY (2007). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at The Whitney Museum, New York, NY; Drawing Center, New York, NY; Pompidou Centre, Paris; Barbican, London; Kusthalle Schirn, Frankfurt; Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts, Bordeaux; and ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, among others. 

Her work is in museum and public collections such as and the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kadist Foundation (San Francisco/Paris), Thoma Foundation (Chicago/Sante Fe); Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Depart Foundation (Rome); Kadist Collection (San Francisco/Paris); Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania; Henry Art Gallery (Seattle); Rubell Collection (Florida); Saatchi Collection (London), Getty Museum (Los Angeles), among others.

She has been artist in residence at the SOMA, CDMX (2019); Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York (2014-15) and the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, MA (2011-12). 

West received an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and a BA from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She has lectured widely on her ideas of the “Analogital” and is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Fine Arts at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design in California. Her writing has appeared in publications including Artforum, Frieze and Mousse Magazine. West has produced fifteen zine artist books which were acquired by the Getty Museum.

 

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Email: greisz@usc.edu

 

Jennifer West, by Liz Ligon
Installation view: Jennifer West: Selected Films, High Line, New York, NY 2012
One Mile Film, 2012 (film still)
Skate the Sky, Tate Modern, London, 2009 (performance still)
Installation view: Aloe Vera and Butter, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK, 2012
Installation view: Jennifer West, "River Water Processing Glass Jars 1-12," 2020 Los Angeles River Water, Found Objects, Archival Pigment Prints, 16mm Film Print, Variable dimensions
Jennifer West, Solo Exhibition: "Future Forgetting Archaeology of Smashed Flatscreen Televisions Thrown off Bridges," 2020 9-channel flatscreen television installation (16mm film print transferred to 2K, shot on Arriflex S1 by Peter West), found objects
Jennifer West: "Film is Dead..." 2019 “In Production: Art and the Studio System,” Installation View, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China, 2019-2020 ©️Yuz Museum, Photo by JJYPhoto
Solo Exhibition: Jennifer West: "Emoji Piss Film," Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 7–December 30, 2018 Photos: Dusty Kessler.
Jennifer West, "Film Title Poem," 2016 35mm optical print hand-etch and painted, transferred to high-definition, sound 67 minutes, 40 seconds Art Night London 2016, presented by Institute of Contemporary Art London
Jennifer West, "Serpentine Dance Performance," Tramway, Glasgow, 2016 Photo: Keith Hunter
Exploded Film Quilt, 2015
Jennifer West, Solo Exhibition. "Flashlight Filmstrip Projections," 2016/2014, Tramway, Glasgow Photos: Keith Hunter