Other of Pearl on Governors Island Jun 13th–Nov 3rd, 2024. The public art exhibition was covered in the New York Times.
For Other of Pearl, the artist grew sculptures based on Classical statuary inside of pearl oysters. Almost three years in the making, this project and six other new works draw 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.
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 two decades 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. Her work is also informed by her identities as queer, Jewish and a single mother.
Kendler is the current Artistic Fellow at the 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 sits on the Board Fundraising Committee for international climate change organization 350.org and the Board of artist residency ACRE.
Recent highlights include:
2024 • Other of Pearl is on the front page of the New York Times
2023 • Kendler is named as a 2023 3Arts Awardee
2023 • Exhibition at Neubauer Collegium chosen as best in US for April by Frieze
2023 • Dear Earth opens at London's Hayward Gallery
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 • Kendler participated in Indicators: Artists on Climate Change at Storm King Arts Center—covered by The New Yorker, Art in America and the New York Times.
2017 • Kendler was awarded an Andrew Mellon Foundation grant for Garden for a Changing Climate with an interdisciplinary team at UIC's Gallery 400
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...
CURRENT & UPCOMING
Feb 21–Jun 9, 2025 • Group Show
Buffalo AKG Museum • Hi-Vis: 10 Years of Public Art • Buffalo, NY
Sept 22, 2024–Jun 1, 2025 • Group Show
Myth of the Organic City • 6018|N as part of Art Design Chicago • Chicago
2024–2026 • Artistic Fellow
The Center for Humans and Nature
2025 • Permanent Commission
Mayo Clinic • Rochester, MN
Opened Spring 2024 • Semi-Permanent Public Artwork
Zoological Society of London • Birds Watching III • London, UK
Jun 2022–2025 • Group Exhibition
Futurium Museum • Whale Bells as part of Nature Mobility • Berlin
ONGOING PUBLIC/COMMISSIONED WORK
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 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
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
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
+ Foreground/Background : Podcast interview
+ The New Yorker : Birds Watching
+ NPR : Live radio interview on WBEZ Worldview
SELECTED PAST EXHIBITIONS & NEWS
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 Art Commission
Governors Island • Other of Pearl • Co-presented with NRDC • New York City
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 in collaboration with Giovanni Aloi, as part of Lost & Found • 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 • As Part of Everything is Connected • Oxford, UK
• Virtual Panel: Building Kinship with Birds with J. Drew Lanham and Dr. Patricia Brekke%
Jun 21—Sept 3, 2023 • New Outdoor Commissions + Group Exhibition
Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre • London
Feb 22nd–Jun 11th, 2023 • Group Show
The Chicago Cli-Fi Library • with Andrew Bearnot, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Geissler/Sann and Dan Peterman • Neubauer Collegium • Chicago
• Watch the panel discussion The Aesthetics of Catastrophe
Oct 2022 • Guest Editor
Guest Editor of Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Quarterly : Issue Q37: Interspecies Thresholds • Available on Magcloud
Sept 2022 • Group Exhibition/Fair
The Franklin •
MDW Fair • Chicago
Sept 7–23, 2022 • Group Exhibition
Biggin Gallery at Auburn University • Close Observations • Alabama
Jul 16–Aug 26 2022 • Group Exhibition
Vielmetter Los Angeles • PLANTS NOW! • Los Angeles
Jul 2022 • Group Exhibition
Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles • Plant-Based • Los Angeles
Jul 1, 2020 – Jun 20th, 2022
Silverwood Park • Lounging Through the Flood collaboration with Jeremy Bolen • St. Anthony, Minnesota
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
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
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