ARTIST STATEMENT
My work aims to encourage conversations about the malleable nature of memory, haunted and holy spaces, and the chain of living connection through the reconsideration of the heirloom object. The overarching themes of my practice include the fundamental desire to safeguard personal narrative and nostalgia, the histories held by personal artifacts, and the ways in which Jewish tradition informs how I’ve come to understand my relationship to my family’s past and my consequential present. I’m especially fascinated by the concept of heritage and its many forms, including not only special items, but one’s body and circumstances as well.
This book of collages combines vintage maps and medical illustrations, my grandma’s handwritten recipe cards, and 20th century letters in an exploration of how the things we interact with in our daily lives hold onto memories of their owners through time.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jayne King is a Chicago-born Jewish artist and recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 2022), where they spent their time focusing on ceramics, object collection, and book making. Their work has been exhibited nationally at Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Povos Gallery, the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, SAIC Galleries, the John David Mooney Foundation, and Woman Made Gallery. King was a 2022 ArtAxis+Haystack Fellowship recipient, a 2022 Chicago Artist Coalition SPARK Grant recipient, a 2023 Luminarts Finalist, the 2023 Old Town Arts Fest Inaugural Emerging Artist, a CPS Lives Resident Artist, and is currently a long-term artist in residence at The Digs Chicago. Their work will be featured in a solo show titled “unearthed” at James Watrous Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin, opening February 2024.
© Jayne King