Above Image: Kendler's solo public project, Other of Pearl on Governors Island in 2024.

For this public art exhibition, seen by over 16,000 visitors, the artist grew sculptures inside of pearl oysters. Almost three years in the making, the project drew connections between our relationship with non-humans and the origin story of the climate crisis. The exhibition was co-presented by The Trust for Governors Island and NRDC.

Read the New York Times Critic's Pick coverage, here.

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JENNY KENDLER (b.1980, New York City) is an interdisciplinary ecological artist, environmental activist, naturalist & wild forager. For the past two decades her work, centered on climate change and biodiversity loss. has been exhibited nationally and internationally at museums, biennials, public spaces & natural areas. Her practice seeks to de-center the human in order to make space for the radical, transformative otherness of the more-than-human world. Her work is also informed by her identities as a queer, Jewish, single parent.

Kendler is the current Artistic Fellow with Center for Humans and Nature and a 2023 3Arts Awardee. From 2014–24, she was Artist-in-Residence with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She is a founding member of Artists Commit—an initiative to raise climate consciousness in the art world. She serves on the Board of Directors for international climate change organization 350.org, artist residency ACRE and nascent community arts fund Arts First.

Kendler's work is included in the permanent collections of The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Nevada Museum of Art's Center for Art + Environment, The Eden Project UK, The AKG Art Museum, The Dom Museum Vienna, Yale University, Brown University and the Joyce Foundation, among others.

Kendler lives in Chicago and various forests. Read more...

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CURRENT & UPCOMING

Opens Jan 9, 2027 • Solo Show
Official Welcome • Los Angeles

Jun 11, 2026–Jan 3, 2027 • Group Show
Chicago Architecture Center with Studio Gang • Flyway City: Architecture for a Flourishing Ecosystem • Chicago

Opens Jul 5, 2026 • Group Show
Brücke Museum • Under Pine Trees... • Carbon-neutral exhibition • Berlin

Nov 7, 2026–Jan 24, 2027 • Group Show
Walters Museum • Luxury and Loss: Feather, Shell, Tusk, Horn • Baltimore

Sept 22, 2024–May 1, 2026 • Group Show
6018 North • Myth of the Organic City • Chicago

2024–2026 • Artistic Fellow + Permanent Commission
Center for Humans and Nature • The Keeping of Bees • Libertyville, IL

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PERMANENT PROJECTS

Opened Spring 2025 • Permanent Commission
Mayo Clinic • Far From You • Rochester, MN

Opened Spring 2024 • Permanent Public Artwork
Zoological Society of London • Birds Watching III • London

Opened Jun 2022 • Permanent Collection
Futurium Museum • Whale Bells as part of Nature Mobility • Berlin

Opened Fall 2023 • Permanent Commission
O'Hare International Airport Arrival Terminal 5 • Close to You • Curated by Ionit Behar + Andrew Schachman • Chicago

Opened Nov 2021 • Public Project
Mending Wall • a collaborative project sited at The Field Museum, in partnership with the Field's Pandemic Collection team, the Chicago Park District and DCASE • Chicago

Opened Jul 2019 • Permanent Sculptural Project
The Eden Project • Birds Watching was recreated with EU & UK climate-threatened birds • Cornwall, UK

Opened Dec 2018 • Public Project
The 606 Elevated Trail • Birds Watching • Chicago

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SELECTED MEDIA FEATURES

+ New York Times : Critic's Notebook Review of Other of Pearl

+ BBC Radio 4 : Inside Science Podcast

+ Artnet : Activist & Artist Jenny Kendler on Climate Grief

+ Chicago Reader Street Style : Bird's Eye View

+ Newcity : Included in Chicago's "Art 50"

+ To the Best of Our Knowledge : Kinship Podcast

+ Art in America : Review of Indicators at Storm King

+ Creative Carbon Scotland : in-depth report on Milkweed Dispersal Balloons

+ The New Yorker : Birds Watching

+ NPR : Live radio interview on WBEZ Worldview

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SELECTED PAST EXHIBITIONS

Feb 21 – Jun 9, 2025 • Group Show
Buffalo AKG Museum • Hi-Vis: 10 Years of Public Art • Buffalo, NY

Aug 12 – Dec 14, 2024 • Group Show
Brackish Water as part of Pacific Standard Time (PSTLA)• California State University Dominguez Hills, University Art Gallery • Los Angeles

June 14 – Nov 3, 2024 • Major Public Commission
Governors Island • Other of Pearl • Co-presented with NRDC • NYC

May 22 – Oct 27, 2024 • Group Show
The Aviary at Waddesdon Manor • Tell it to the Birds as part of Flights of Fancy • Buckinghamshire, UK

Jun 1 – Sept 22, 2024 • Garden Commission
Through the Eye of the Unicorn • collaboration with Giovanni Aloi • Chicago Botanic Gardens • Chicago

Sept 22, 2023 –Jan 27, 2024 • Group Exhibition
Who Speaks for the Oceans? • Tarble Arts Center • Charleston, IL

Oct 2nd – Dec 2nd, 2023 • Solo Project
Oxford University Museum of Natural History • Tell it to the Birds • Oxford, UK

Jun 21— – Sept 3, 2023 • New Outdoor Commissions + Group Exhibition
Dear Earth: Art & Hope in a Time of Crisis • Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre • London

Feb 22nd – Jun 11th, 2023 • Group Show
The Chicago Cli-Fi Library • Neubauer Collegium • Chicago

Oct 2022 • Guest Editor
Guest Editor of Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Quarterly : Issue Q37: Interspecies Thresholds • [download issue]

Jul 16 – Aug 26 2022 • Group Exhibition
Vielmetter Los Angeles • PLANTS NOW! • Los Angeles

Apr 24 – May 28, 2022 • Solo Exhibition
Goldfinch • In the Shadow of the Sundial • Chicago
[Read the Climate Impact Report with Artists Commit, here.]

Mar 2020 – Mar 2022 • Group Exhibition
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History • Music for Elephants • Unsettled Nature: Artists Reflect on the Age of Humans • Washington, D.C.

Oct 1, 2020 – Aug 28, 2021 • Group Exhibition
The Dom Museum Wein • Fragile Creation • Vienna, Austria

Jan 16 – Jun 27, 2021 • Solo Exhibition
MSU Broad Museum • Jenny Kendler: The Long Goodbye • Curated by Steven L. Bridges • Lansing, MI

May 9 – Jun 6, 2021 • Group Exhibition
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts • Contact Traces • San Francisco • [download catalog]

Feb 3 – Mar 27, 2021 • Group Exhibition with Deep Time Chicago
Weinberg/Newton • Collective Communities: Action on Environmental Crises in partnership with Earthjustice • Chicago

Opened Fall 2020 • Permanent Group Exhibition
Whale Bells • collaboration with Andrew Bearnot • Change, a permanent exhibition aboard a National Geographic ice-class Arctic vessel • Arctic Ocean

Dec 14, 2019 – Jun 14, 2020 • Group Exhibition
MCA Chicago • Water After All • 1000 Flags / 1000 Waters • collaboration with Mara Eve Robbins • Chicago

Aug – Oct 2019 • Group Exhibition
Exhibition to benefit migrant relief org Border Kindness • Border Fence, Mexicali, MX & Los Angeles

Aug 2019 • Installation
Underground Library • Sagehen Creek Field Station in partnership with curator Shirley Watts of Natural Discourse, The Nevada Museum of Art's Center for Art + Environment and DOER Marine • Truckee, CA

Sept 2018 – Mar 2019 • Public Project
The Arts Club of Chicago • The Playhead of Dawn • Chicago

Feb 27th – Mar 3rd • Group Show
LA County Arboretum and Botanic Garden • Digital Nature • Los Angeles

May – Nov 2018 • Commissioned Sculptural Projects
Indicators: Artists on Climate Change • Storm King Art Center • New Windsor, NY

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"My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world."

– Adrienne Rich