Malia Jensen

When looking for a contemporary artist I wanted to find someone whose work was similar to the first project that I did in my Art 231 Sculpture class. When I found Malia Jensen, I knew she was the artist I wanted to write about. Jensen “received her BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. She has exhibited work with the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art; The New Museum, New York; the Tacoma Art Museum, Washington; the Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana; the Portland Art Museum; the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington; the Mesa Arts Center, Arizona and the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Australia” (Malia Jensen). Currently based in New York City, she works with all different mediums and materials, but it was her work in ceramics that specifically caught my eye.

Perfect Circle, 2012, Cast ceramic, 2 x 24 x 24 in

Jensen uses animals as a big part of her sculptures as well as some inanimate objects with a lot of attention to the formal qualities of whatever material she uses. “Jensen creates beautiful works invested with human emotion, as she describes: ‘There’s a deep sadness in a lot of the work. It’s like finding a human condition in an animal parallel’” (Malia Jensen | Art.sy). I really identified with that because in my piece I wanted to highlight a very human condition related to the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate in an animal parallel around the bird with her eggs. I also found a lot of similarities in the way that Jensen and I both chose to be representational rather than abstract and used mediums that were quite similar in appearance; plaster and ceramic.

Bedroll, 2005, cast ceramic, 10 x 16 x 14 in

Another element of Jensen’s work that I really enjoy is that despite the sensuous and sometimes sad qualities her pieces take, they also tend to have a touch of humor to them as well. In an interview before her show at Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago 2009, Jensen said that “I think that humor is a survival tool. It's kind of a counterpoint to a bleakness, and I think that there are both things in my work. There's bleakness, there's humor and there's beauty. So it's like they're playing together” (Ritchie, Abraham). I would love to be able to master the play of emotions in my sculpture work and be able to add that level to my pieces like she does.Hence, Malia Jensen is an extremely talented artist whose work in ceramics both relates to my first sculpture as well as inspires me to further my emotional depth as an artist. I really identified with her work because in my piece I wanted to highlight a very human condition, specifically related to the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate, in an animal parallel just like she aims to do in her work. Her pieces are illustrative, excellently crafted, and filled with the play of emotions. 

En Plein Aire, 2000, Urethane Resin, Acrylic Urethane

Seal + Penguin 4 Ever, 2008, Patinated bronze, polyester resin, acrylic urethane, cat whiskers, 20 x 42 x 67 in.

In case you wanted to see my piece that I was comparing to Malia's work :)
(This was the first sculpture I've ever done!)

Jenna Thompson, "Multiple Choice" 2012, Plaster and found object.

Works Cited

Louie, Elaine. "Care for a Bronze Cherry?" New York Times 09 Dec. 2010: 3. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 25 Sept. 2012."Malia Jensen | Art.sy." Art.sy. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://art.sy/artist/malia-jensen>.

"Malia Jensen." Richard Gray Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://www.richardgraygallery.com/artists/malia-jensen/>Ritchie, Abraham. "Interview with Malia Jensen." ArtSlant 2008: n. pag. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://http://maliajensen.com/about/artslant08.pdf>.