Jean Brennan

As an interdisciplinary thinker, Jean works at the intersection between ecology, language, alchemy, and the body. Recurring themes include a fascination with atmospheric forces, plants, phenomenology, and color. Using the lyrical essay as method, she loosely assembles scientific research, historical and pop culture references with personal reflection, to explore our relationship to the natural world, interspecies dependency, and models of resiliency. She uses design to publish, archive, and visually score projects that may include installation, video, sculpture, and performance.

As an educator, Jean investigates making as a form of research, community engagement, and horizontal structures for learning and collaboration. Through site based explorations, she encourages creative wilding outside of the studio. Her intent is to empower students to discover and embody their own methodologies and to consider the impact of their making as a generative action that lives in the world.

Selection of exhibitions include New Museum (NYC), Trouw, Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Tahoe Gallery (Incline Village, NV), Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (New York), Skylight Gallery (NYC); performances include St. Marks Church (NYC), Sagehen Creek UC Berkeley Field Station, Tahoe National Forest, and BAU (Beacon Artists Union); additional teaching appointments include Hunter College, School of Visual Arts, and coordinator of GradComD initiative, Public Project (2011-14); selected professional practice includes creative and art direction at Nickelodeon, Razorfish, Lee Hunt Associates; grants include New York Foundation of the Arts, Pratt Faculty Development Fund; publications include ‘Transform-action: Adventures in the Realm of Transformation Design’ and design thesis ‘Haptic Space.’

M.F.A. Interdisciplinary Arts, Sierra Nevada College; M.S. Communications Design, Pratt Institute; B.A. Literature and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz; Certificate in Agroecology, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS), University of California, Santa Cruz.