Above: Solo exhibition Jenny Kendler: The Long Goodbye at the MSU Broad Museum, Jan 16–June 27, 2021.

JENNY KENDLER (b.1980, New York City) is an interdisciplinary ecological artist, environmental activist, naturalist & wild forager whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at museums, biennials, public spaces & natural areas. For the past 15 years her work has focused on climate change and biodiversity loss. Her practice seeks to de-center the human in order to make space for the radical, transformative otherness of the more-than-human world. Since 2014, she has been the first Artist-in-Residence with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Kendler is a founding member of Artists Commit—an initiative to de-carbonize the art world and sits on the Board Fundraising Committee for international climate change organization 350.org. She is a member of artist collective Deep Time Chicago and was Board Co-Chair of artist residency ACRE, which she still helps run, for over a decade.

Recent highlights include:
Nov 2021 • Mending Wall opened at The Field Museum
Jan 2021 • Jenny Kendler: The Long Goodbye opened at the MSU Broad Museum
2020 • Music for Elephants opened at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
2019 • The Playhead of Dawn was commissioned by the Arts Club of Chicago
2018 • Her work was part of Indicators: Artists on Climate Change—an exhibition at Storm King Arts Center—which was covered by The New Yorker, Hyperallergic, Art in America and the New York Times.
2017 • Alongside an interdisciplinary team based at Gallery 400, she was awarded an Andrew Mellon Foundation grant for her community-engaged project Garden for a Changing Climate.

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

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

CURRENT & UPCOMING

Jun 2022–2024 • Group Exhibition
Futurium • Whale Bells as part of Nature Mobility • Berlin

Summer 2022 • Group Exhibition
Vielmetter Los Angeles • PLANTS NOW! • Los Angeles

Nov 2021–Ongoing • Public Art 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

2022 • New Commission
O'Hare International Airport Terminal 5 • Close to You • Curated by Ionit Behar + Andrew Schachman • Chicago

Guest Editor
Guest Editor of Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Quarterly : Issue Q37 : Published Spring 2022

2023–2024 • Major Public Art Commission
Governor's Island • Other of Pearl • In partnership with NRDC • New York City

Summer 2023 • Public Art Commission + Group Exhibition
Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre • London

ONGOING PUBLIC WORK

Opened Fall 2020 • Permanent Group Exhibition
Whale Bells, a collaboration with Andrew Bearnot, are part of Change a permanent exhibition aboard a National Geographic ice-class Arctic vessel • Curated by Zaria Forman • Arctic Ocean

Opened Dec 16th, 2018 • Permanent Public Project
The 606 Elevated Trail • Birds Watching • Chicago

Opened Jul 8, 2019 • Permanent Sculptural Project
The Eden Project • Birds Watching was recreated with EU & UK climate-threatened birds • Cornwall, UK

Jul 1, 2020 – Jun 20th, 2022
Silverwood Park • Lounging Through the Flood collaboration with Jeremy Bolen • St. Anthony, Minnesota

SELECTED MEDIA FEATURES

+ Artnet : |Activist and Artist Jenny Kendler on Climate Grief, and What Artists Can Do for the Planet|https://news.artnet.com/sustainability/conversation-jenny-kendler-2083301|
+ Chicago Reader Street Style : |Bird's Eye View|https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/street-view-jenny-kendler/Content?oid=84608121|
+ Newcity : Included in Chicago's "Art 50"
+ To the Best of Our Knowledge : Interview for Kinship Podcast
+ Art in America : Review of 'Indicators' at Storm King
+ Creative Carbon Scotland : in-depth report on Milkweed Dispersal Balloons and the NRDC A-i-R program
+ Foreground/Background : Podcast interview
+ The New Yorker : 'Birds Watching'
+ NPR : Live radio interview on WBEZ's Worldview

SELECTED PAST EXHIBITIONS & NEWS


Apr 24 – May 28, 2022 • Solo Exhibition
Goldfinch • In the Shadow of the Sundial • Chicago
A Climate Impact Report with Artists Commit is available for the show, here.

Mar 4, 2022 • 8am–8:45am EST • Panel Discussion
Horasis USA • The Arts – Do they Matter? Can they Empower? moderated by Stephanie Stebich (Dir. of Smithsonian American Art Museum) • Online

Mar 2020 – Mar 2022 • Group Exhibition
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History • Music for Elephants is part of Unsettled Nature: Artists Reflect on the Age of Humans • Washington, D.C.
Watch Virtual Talk: Kendler in conversation with Smithsonian curator Carlene Stephens

Fall 2021 • New Commissions
National Geographic icebreaker ship • 18 new works in collaboration with Andrew Bearnot • Arctic Ocean

Oct 15 – Nov 13 2021 • Group Exhibition
Co-Prosperity Sphere + Watershed Art & Ecology • OVERFLOW: The Mississippi in Every State Imaginable • with Deep Time Chicago • Chicago, IL

Oct 1, 2020 – Aug 28, 2021 • Group Exhibition
The Dom Museum Wein • Three works acquired for permanent collection and exhibition in Fragile Schöpfung/Fragile Creation • Curated by Johanna Schwanberg & Dr. Klaus Speidel • Vienna, Austria

Jan 16 – Jun 27, 2021 • Solo Exhibition
MSU Broad Museum • Jenny Kendler: The Long Goodbye • Curated by Steven L. Bridges • Lansing, MI
Watch Recorded Talk & Panel: Art & Activism: Jenny Kendler in conversation with Elizabeth Corr, NRDC and curator Steven L. Bridges
Watch Recorded Talk on Whale Bells with Andrew Bearnot & Performances by Lyn Goeringer & David Rothenberg: Songs from the Deep

May 9 – Jun 6, 2021 • Group Exhibition
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts • Contact Traces • San Francisco, CA
Order the catalog, or download it here.

Apr 29, 2021 • 6–7:30pm • Virtual Panel
Watch Recorded Panel: Monuments as Sites of Reckoning: the Built Environment as a Memorial • with Amanda Williams, Ron Rael, Mabel Williams & Ken Lum • City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

Apr 23, 2021 • 12–1pm • Virtual Panel
Watch Recorded Panel: Virtual Conversation: Art & Climate • with Mika Tosca, Laura Lupton of Artists Commit, Gabriela Salazar & Carrie Hanson of The Seldoms • Art Institute of Chicago

Mar 17 – May 8, 2021 • Group Exhibition
Round Weather • Chromocartography • Oakland, CA

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

Feb 23, 2021 • Virtual Screening
Winter is Alive • a German and US curatorial exchange envisioning the climate crisis

June – Sept 19 2020 • Group Exhibition
Performative Ecologies • Curated by Patricia Watts • 826 CURRENTS • Santa Fe, NM

Apr 19, 2020 • Panelist
MCA Chicago • Dialogue Series 2020: Inheritance with Pope.L, Dr. Rachel Havrelock of the Freshwater Lab + What Pipeline (WATCH HERE) • Chicago

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

Mar 2 – May 21, 2020 • Traveling Group Exhibition
This video created in collaboration with Brian Kirkbride will be part of Citizen Animalia • Glass Curtain Gallery at Columbia College • Chicago

MOVED to ONLINE VENUES AND ALTERNATE PLANS: Earth Day to May Day • Non-Violent Direct Actions
Art Coordination and Organizing for Extinction Rebellion Chicago as part of the city-wide Climate Coalition alongside IL Youth Climate Strike, IL Indigenous Youth Council, Sunrise Movement and many more labor, environmental justice and immigration rights groups

Jan 2020 • Group Exhibition
Lounging Through the Flood, created in collaboration with Jeremy Bolen will be included in Depictions of Living - Art and Activism in the Time of Climate Crisis • Art Pavilion, Mile End • London, UK

Opened Oct 11, 2019 • Group Exhibition
Confluence Ecologies with Deep Time Chicago at Southeast Illinois University Museum as part of the HKW, Goethe Institue and Max Planck Institut's project Mississippi: An Anthropocene River • Lounging through the Flood (a collaboration with Jeremy Bolen) will be installed at SIU after it's maiden voyage at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and will also travel as a geo-tagged augmented reality (AR) 'sculpture' • Carbondale, IL and sites of flooding and fossil fuel infrastructure on the Mississippi River

Oct 23 – Dec 12, 2019 • Group Exhibition
In the Weeds: Art and the Natural World • Beard and Weil Galleries • Wheaton College • Norton, Massachusetts

Aug – Oct 2019 • Group Exhibition
Exhibition to benefit migrant relief organization Border Kindness • Mexico/US Border Fence in Mexicali, Mexico & Avenue 50 Studio, East Los Angeles

Aug 2019 • Biochar Burn and Installation
Underground Library will continue with a biochar kiln burn at 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

Apr 25 – Aug 11, 2019 • Group Exhibition
DePaul Art Museum • New Age, New Age: Strategies for Survival • Chicago

June 11, 2019 • Speaker at Symposium
Christie's New York • The Role of Art in the Environmental Crisis • Organized by Dr. Julie Reiss • NYC

Sept 2018 – Mar 25, 2019 • Public Project
The Arts Club of Chicago • The Playhead of Dawn • Collaborative sound and data project with Brian Kirkbride for the Arts Club garden • Chicago

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

May – Nov 2018 • Sculptural Projects
Indicators: Artists on Climate Change • Storm King Art Center • Mountainville, NY
• 'Ghosts of our Future Climate' review in Hyperallergic
• 'Indicators' featured in the New York Times
• 'Day of the Bird' at Storm King was on August 12th featuring live falcon drawing with Jenny Kendler & George Boorujy, a musical performance of songbirdsong by John Luther Adams, and a reading by conservationist J. Drew Lanham

Apr 22nd – Aug 2018 • Community Co-created Project
Garden for a Changing Climate • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/HWW grant-funded community co-created project with collaborators at Gallery 400 • Chicago

Dec 2016 – Jan 2018 • Public Project
Sculpture--->Garden • Biodegradable sculptures installed near Lake Michigan throughout the year on each solstice and equinox • Chicago Parks District • Chicago

April 2017 • Interactive Project
Bewilder (Deimatic Eyespot Camouflage) • California Academy of Sciences • San Francisco

Nov 2016
Music for Elephants • Special Project for MCA Chicago • Curated by Ann Meisinger • Chicago
•Read more about the project in NRDC's onEarth Magazine.
•Music for Elephants covered in Chicago Magazine

Jan 29 – Apr 27, 2015 • Group Show
Rooted in Soil • Curated by Laura & Farrah Fatemi • DePaul Art Museum • Chicago
Lori Waxman's review for the Chicago Tribune

Dec 12 – Feb 12, 2014 • Group Exhibit
Rooting (India): The Knowledge Project • Curated by Tricia Van Eck, Deborah Boardman & Akshay Rathore • Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India

Sept 18 – 21, 2014 • Solo Project • Interactive Installation
Tell it to the Birds • NRDC Project Space • EXPO Chicago

Jul 30 – Aug 1, 2014 • Public Project
Milkweed Dispersal Balloons • Marfa Dialogues / St. Louis • Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts • St. Louis, MO

View full artist CV here

“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