Jenny Humphreys

I her new work, Jenny Humphreys paints people, animals, trees, and flowers in complex imaginary landscapes. The pictures are bold and colorful, simple at first glance, but when viewed over time they reveal unexpected details, hidden images and strange juxtapositions which imply narratives. Humphreys paints without specific stories in mind; instead, she allows imaginary images from nature, history, mythlogy, and fantasy her to emerge and she combines them and presents them as directly as possible. Her expectation is that the viewer will make his or her own associations, thus the paintings may mean something different for different people.

2011 show comprises six large oil paintings and several smaller works. Some of the work was started while the artist was a resident last fall at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and fininshed in Provincetown this winter and spring.

Jenny Humphreys, "Green Ra

Jenny Humphreys

Jenny Humphreys, wedding dress

Jenny Humphreys, "Everything I Own" embroidered wedding dress, size 8

Artists United at Gallery Ehva

Jenny Humphreys, "Roman Spring" installation, paint, paper, 8' x 8'

Jenny Humphreys, painting on paper

Jenny Humphreys, "I am a black rabbit (Poe)" mixed media on paper

Jenny Humphreys, painting on paper

Jenny Humphreys, "Poe in Richmond, mixed media on pape

Jenny Humphreys, painting on paper

Jenny Humphreys, "Poe" pencil on paper

Jenny Humphreys, 2010 exhibit

Jenny Humphreys

Jenny Humphreys, 2010 exhibit, portraits of women criminals, pancil drawings

Jenny Humphreys, "Frontier" oil on canvas, 44 x 47

Jenny Humphreys, "Under the Tree" oil on canvas, 48 x 37.5

The paintings are a series about the American landscape and history seen through the lens of my imagination. The women in the paintings meant to be both the observed as well as the observer. To me, they represent the various ways we make sense of who we are based on our learning about history and by our observations of real people and of nature.

The drawings, Women Criminals from the 1880's are just that. They are copied from a book of real mug shots, the first in major use, which was put together in New York City in the late 1800. Most of the pages are men. The few pages of women fascinated me because they appeared so much more in costume than the photographed men. The women seemed to be "playing" criminals, and I wondered just how their lives must have been lived. By drawing them, I spent some time thinking about them and devising my own history for them. I also appreciated how much can be seen from a face, an expression, and how much can be added with the distraction and misdirection of a hat, shawl the right gloves. Much the same as today, women, even criminals at that time were preoccupied with their outward appearance and much more than their male counterparts. --Jenny Humphreys

Gallery Ehva: Jenny Humphreys studio photograph

These paintings and drawings made over the last two years represent both my interest in presenting nature simply and directly, and my ever present need to exert my own order over those things. These opposing and complimentary themes run throughout most of my work whether it is more traditional or nontraditional media. I don't work directly from nature, but I do spend a lot of time out of doors and I have enormous respect and wonder for the natural world and that is where the inspiration for a lot of my work originates. As the work progresses, it inevitably becomes a navigation between the need I have to impose order, to tell a story, to make sense of the world; versus my desire and need to try to relate the direct sensual response I have to the world I see, hear and smell around me. This process progresses naturally without plan or forethought, so I am often as surprised with the resulting artwork as I would be with something that I came upon as opposed to having made myself. In fact, I find that when I make a plan I am soon moving away from it, and when I think that I am working purely from intuition that I find familiar patterns and themes emerging. This is the way we humans experience much of the world and as an artist I find it to be fascinating as well as challenging and sometimes frustrating.

Images of flowers, animals, figures, and landscapes are common images in my paintings; and I find myself using them I use shape, color line and form to combine into whatever it is I want to convey. I was fortunate to spend some time last spring away from the Cape painting in Virginia, and I was delighted and unprepared for a new kind of light which entered the work that I did while I was there, and which I was able to bring back to my studio and which is now incorporated into the big story from which I draw my inspiration.

Although I would like to make sense of what I do and what I see and to be able to make it clear and sensible to myself and to others, as my whole career has taught me; my path seems to be always one of discovery and experience. Then if then I have to tell the story many times before I get it right, then that is what I do. The result of that process is my work.

-- Jenny Humphreys

. . . . . . . . . .

Jenny Humphreys has lived in Provincetown since 1994 when she moved her following a seven month fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center. She has shown locally at DNA Gallery, the Schoolhouse Gallery, Artstrand, and PAAM, as well as at the FAWC Gallery where she had second fellowship in 2000/2001. Last spring, Humphreys spent a month in residency at the Virginia center for the Creative Arts, her third time as a resident there. She has also been a resident at Yaddo and Millay colonies. Trained as a painter, she has also made multi media works including installations and performances, (some involving food), sewn pieces, photography, books and video/film.

Gallery Ehva, Jenny Humphreys

2 Red Figures by Jenny Humphreys, PAAM show

. . . . . . . . . . .

JENNY HUMPHREYS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2005

New Work, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

Flags, Flying Space Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY

2004

New Paintings , Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

2003

Jenny Humphreys , Koussevitzy Gallery, Berkshire College, Pittsfield, MA

2001

How to avoid and other Photographs , DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

How I got through Lent, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Why Angel Cakes Fail, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

In the Garden, Hot Cakes, Charlottesville, VA

1999

New Work, Acme Art Co., Columbus, OH

Jenny's Room, Artists' Foundation, Boston, MA

1998

Saint in a Cradle, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

BBQ with a Prisoner, P-town Inc., Provincetown, MA

Wedding Dresses and Flags, DNA, Provincetown, MA

1997

Ladies' Fancy Work, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Quilts and Aprons, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1996

Memorial for Chita, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

cunt., DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1995

New Work, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1994

Sugar Babies and Candy Legs, Berta Walker West, Provincetown, MA

mine., Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1993

Recent Work, Gallery at he Beckett, New York, NY

1991

Sanctum, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1989

Recent Paintings, Penn Sate University, Harrisburg, PA

1988

Yaddo Paintings, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

GROUP EXHIBITION

2009

Works on Paper, Artstrand, Provincetown, MA

Postcards from the Edge, Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Yellow, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA

2008

Project Edge, Kobalt Gallery, Provincetown, MA

DNA Gallery Artists, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Fine Arts Work Center 40 th Anniversary, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA

Invitational, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2007

Project Edge, ArtStrand, Provincetown, MA

Quaking Bog III, Provincetown, MA

Gallery Artists, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2006

Quaking Bog II, Provincetown Quaking bog installation

Cusp, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

I am Provincetown, Schoolhouse Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2005

All Town Invitational, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA

Gallery Artists and Invited Guests, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Bedtime Stories, Gallery Artists, Flying Space Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY

Drawings , Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

2004

Drawings and Curator's choice, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

Feast and Famine and Water, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Spec(k)tacular, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2003

Invitational, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Peaceable Kingdom and Gallery Artists, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2002

Uncommon Threads, Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH

Genetics, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Band of Outsiders, Hallspace, Boston, MA

New Works, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

2001

Small Work, Cape Museum of Art, Dennis MA

Curator's Choice, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

Former Fellows, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2000

Curator's Choice, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

Gallery Artists, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

New Work, Betty Mooney Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

Visual Art Fellows, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1999

Art & Suitcase; Will Travel, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Deep 6, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA

My Garden, Cherrystone Gallery, Wellfleet, MA

1998

Subtext and Cheap Thrills, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Outdoor Sculpture, East End Gallery, Wellfleet, MA

Drawing Invitational, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, MA

Inaugural Exhibition, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

East of the Canal, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1997

Invitational, Provincetown Art Association, Milena Kalinofska, curator

Ghost, Domestic Bliss, Cloning, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Outdoor Sculpture, Cherrystone Gallery, Wellfleet, MA

2 X 10, T.J. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Nexus Turns 21, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1996

20/20, Provincetown Art Association, Provincetown, MA

Self Portrait Plus One, Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Visual Art Fellows, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1993

Salon, OIA Gallery, New York, NY

1992

Salon of the Mating Spiders, Test-Site Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

1990

Diverse Visions, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Painting Grantees,

traveling, with venues in PA, NJ, MD, DE, VA

Salon de Refuse, Philadelphia Armory, Philadelphia, PA

Nexus Steps over Jesse Helms into the '90's, Nexus, Philadelphia, PA

Nexus at Amos Eno, Amos Eno Gallery, New York, NY

Annual Group Exhibitions, Nexus Gallery, 1987-1990, Philadelphia, PA

1988

Art of the Northeast, Silvermine Arts Guild, Lowery Sims curator, New

Canaan, CT

1987

Exhibition B, Momenta Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1986

On the Edge, Indianapolis Arts Guild, Indianapolis, IN

AWARDS AND GRANTS

2008

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Residency, Sweetbriar, VA

2005

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Residency, Sweetbriar, VA

2002

Provincetown Cultural Council Grant, MA Cultural Council

Driskel Studio Residency, Schoolhouse Center, Provincetown, MA

2001

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, residency, Sweetbriar, VA

Fine Arts Work Center, fellowship, Provincetown, MA

1998

Millay Colony, residency, Austerliz, NY

1994

Fine Arts Work Center, fellowship, Provincetown, MA

1992

Millay Colony, residency, Austerliz, NY

1990

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Grant, painting

1988

Yaddo, residency, Saratoga Springs, NY

1985

Indiana University Traveling Fellowships to Italy

EDUCATION

1986 MFA, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

1983 BA, Yale University, New Haven, CT, cum laude

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, Larissa, The Art of Jenny Humphreys, Knitty, winter 2004

Beete, Paulette, Uncommon Threads, American Spirit, v. 138, #2, pp. 34-38, 2004

Nagler, Gillian, Uncommon Threads, exhibition catalogue, 2002

McCaid, Kate, Artists Sew Quilts Past and Present, Boston Globe, 16 Aug ., 2002

Hill, Shawn, Band of Outsides, Art New England, June/July, 2002

Desautels, Gerry, Jenny Humphreys Strikes Again, Provincetown, Banner, 28 Feb., 2002

Briccetti, Lee, Putting Bread on the Table, P-town Women, 1998, pp.37-39

McDonald, Gregory, Jenny Humphreys Sews Haunting Feminist Images into Fabric,

Cape Cod Art and Antiques, July 1998, p.1

McDonald, Gregory, Home Cooked Feminism; Two Provincetown Artists find a

Voice in Domesticity, Cape Codder, 24 Aug., 1997

Lindstrom, Rena, A Century of Women Artists; Four Women of the Provincetown

Art Colony, P-town Women, 1999, pp. 19-22

Gallery Briefs; Behrens, Critchley, Finley, and Humphreys, The Advocate, 18 July, 1997

Burns, Joe, Artitsts Give Ironic Twist to Domestic Bliss, Provincetown Banner, 2 Oct., 1997

Mandell, Pamela, Domestic Comfort and Body Parts; An Interview with Jenny Humphreys, Provincetown Arts, v. 12 , 1996 , pp . 82-85

Burns, Joe, Humphreys' Quilt Wrapped in Controversy, Provincetown Banner, 18 Jan., 1996, p.11

TEACHING/LECTURES

2003 Visiting Artist, Berkshire College, Pittsfield, MA

2002 Visiting Artist, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN

1992 Associate Professor, Union County College, Cranford, NJ

1989 Visiting Artist, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, PA

1986 Assistant Professor, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Jenny Humphreys

Visit Jenny's studio --> click here