Curatorial Statement
Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, September 12, 2022 at 10 am MT
Closing Reception with the artists on Friday, September 30, 2022 from 5-7pm MT in conjunction with our free fall workshop.
Jennifer Allen and Birdie Boone will share their love of all things plants in our September exhibition, plant crA-Zed. As companions that help cultivate our domestic spaces, plants show us incredible strength in the genius of their diversity, resilience, persistence, and adaptability, all of which offer us avenues to consider shifting perspectives. Giddy trips to the greenhouse and hours of plant-oriented conversation and research have brought Jen Allen and Birdie Boone together as plant crA-Zed exhibition companions. As a framework for the exhibit, from A-Zed, the alphabet is split between them and the letters used as directives toward plants that inspire each artist to explore and express these assets.
Jennifer Allen received her BFA from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2002 and an MFA from Indiana University in 2006. In addition to a formal education, she worked full time as a studio assistant for Bliss Pottery from 1998 to 2002. For post baccalaureate study, Jennifer attended Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts.
Following graduate school, Jennifer was awarded the 2006-2007 Taunt Fellowship at the Archie Bray Foundation. During the 2008 NCECA Conference, she was recognized as an emerging artist. Among other awards, Jennifer was named the 2008 Myer Fellow Resident Artist at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. She currently teaches part time at West Virginia University and keeps a personal studio. Her work is represented nationally including The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA, Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN and Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT.
Birdie Boone is a maker of pots and researcher of the domestic realm, especially of social tendencies and their effects on personal identity with regard to food and modern lifestyle. She currently lives and maintains her practice as a studio potter in southwestern Virginia. Birdie holds a BA in Studio Fine Arts from The College of William and Mary in Virginia (1994) and an MFA in Artisanry/Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (2005) and was notably a long- term artist in residence at the Archie Bray Foundation from 2007 to 2009.