Jenna Alyse Clark

Interdisciplinary - Fiber and mixed-media artist

About

Jenna Clark is a maker of mixed media, textiles, drawings, sculptures, and soundscapes. Her work has been performed and exhibited nationally at such places as: Gadsden Museum of Art, AL, AEIVA, Birmingham, AL, Boca Raton Innovation Center, FL, ATHICA, Athens, GA, and MadArts Museum, Dania Beach, FL. She is a current MFA candidate at FAU where she has been awarded the Florida Atlantic University Presidential Fellowship, Sheila Ivory Award, and Friedland Grant.

Straddling the spheres of fine art and craft, my work investigates storytelling as means of placemaking. I create works based on my own experience, as a young woman in the South, and the shared stories of those around me. These works take the form of sculptural drawings and collages, projected installations, thematic soundscapes, printed and quilted textiles, musical performances, and found-object assemblages. I collect and depict stories from in-person interviews, oral history collection, and conversations from my own relationships that illustrate the identities of a place or time. These stories act as grounding and orienting reflections, in a dissociated and socially siloed culture. Each story centers on real life experiences that reveal attachments to place, people and the divine.
From the gathered stories, I depict different motifs that physically represent imagery communicated as memories, thoughts, and experiences. This imagery often manifests as flora & fauna, buildings/homes, objects and portraiture. I use ink to draw these images on different fibers and paper substrates, and I often use stitching as markmaking to embed the images in the material.
I forage natural dye materials from important sites mentioned in stories and found in my own research. I use the natural dyes on exclusively found fibers. I use a combination of aged found materials to reflect the history of the objects before they came into my possession. I also include rough hand stitching, loose threads, and imperfect/blemished materials in my work. This is to make my hand visible in the work, and to provide a contrast to the predominantly mass-manufactured (perfect) items and imagery all around us.
My current works highlight the fragmentation of interpersonal and communal relationships that occurs from living in a productivity-driven society and interacting digitally through social media interfaces. Rather than privileging conversational brevity, my work elevates unhurried conversation as a remedy for community disjunction. And, in so doing, uncovers personal and communal histories that may be otherwise overlooked as mundane or forgotten.
Through depicting the experiences of myself and others, I not only tell stories, but allow audiences to experience them visually, spatially, and sonically. expanding on the intersection of both visual and auditory senses in art, to create a memory-like atmosphere and interactive experiential spaces. The stories I tell encourage audiences to reflect on connection points to personal and interpersonal histories, shared cultural memory, and the potential hereafter.

Education
BA. Studio Art, magna cum laude, University of Alabama at Birmingham
MFA. Studio Art, Florida Atlantic University (Expected) 2027Exhibition Record
Group Exhibits
2025 - A Common Thread, The Bells Galley, Dothan, AL
2025 - Radical Imperfection, Athens Institute For Contemporary Art, Athens, GA
2025 - Displacement-Placement-Replacement, Mad Arts Museum, Dania Beach, FL
2025 - MFA Exhibition, Boca Raton Innovation Center, Boca Raton, FL
2025 - CAST Party, Delaire Country Club, Delray, FL
2025 - Juried Student Exhibition, Schmidt Galley Public Space, Boca Raton, FL
2024 - Feminine “I”, A & M University Art Gallery, Huntsville, AL
2024 - STofART UAB, Gadsden Museum of Art, Gadsden, AL
2024 - Montgomery Art Guild Members Exhibit, Montgomery Art Center, Montgomery, AL
2024 - West Alabama Juried Show, The Arts Council Gallery at the DW Cultural Arts Center, Tuscaloosa, AL
2024 - Sweet Wreath Speaks, Railroad Park, Birmingham, AL
2024 - 48th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, AEIVA, Birmingham, AL
2023 - 57th Annual Montgomery Art Guild Regions Bank Exhibition, Montgomery, AL
2023 - Curative Plants of Alabama, Mervyn Sterne Library, UAB, Birmingham, AL
2023 - 47th Annual Juried Student Exhibition, AEIVA, Birmingham, AL
2023 - West Alabama Juried Show, The Arts Council Gallery at the DW Cultural Arts Center, Tuscaloosa, AL
2022 - Double Vision: Paintings and Videos by UAB Students, Art Lab, UAB, Birmingham, AL
2022 - Sweet Wreath: Spring Fling, Clubhouse on Highland, Birmingham, AL
2021 - The Salon, Art Lab, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
2021 - Foundations Exhibition: Death and Transformation, Art Lab, UAB, Birmingham, ALPerformances and Installations
2026 - Sumac Sundowners, Sumac Collage, Greensboro, AL (forthcoming)
2025 - Frame of Connection, Hulsey Center for the Arts, Birmingham, ALAwards and Fellowships
2025 - Friedland Grant, contributed by the Florida Atlantic University VAAH Awards & Scholarships Committee
2024 - Florida Atlantic University Presidential Fellowship (2024-2026)
2024 - Sheila Ivory Award, contributed by the Florida Atlantic University VAAH Awards & Scholarships Committee
2024 - West Alabama Juried Show, Cash Award, contributed by The Arts Council of TuscaloosaCommissions
Public
2021 - Retro Speakers (10x11ft.), Latex paint on sheetrock. The Modern House, Birmingham, AL
2021 - Greenery Latte (3x3ft.), Latex paint on sheetrock. The Modern House, Birmingham, AL
2021 - The Modern House…Community (6x5ft.), Latex paint on wood lap-siding, The Modern House, Birmingham, AL
2018 - The Building (24x36in.), Acrylic paint on canvas, Clay Public Library, Clay, AL
2017 - Cherry Blossoms (6x4ft.), Clay Public Library, Clay, ALPrivate
2022 - First (12x12in.) Acrylic paint on canvas, Birmingham, AL
2020 - Colored Hex (9x12ft.), Latex paint on sheetrock wall-face, Birmingham, AL
2019 - The Quilts (13x35ft.), Latex paint on tin lap-siding, Oneonta, ALProfessional Service
2025 - Graduate Teaching Assistant, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
2023 - Ceramic Design and Production, Susan Gordon Pottery, Homewood, AL
2022 - Computer Service and Graphic Design, Homewood Public Library, Homewood, AL
2022 - Website and Graphic Design, Sweet Wreath, Irondale, AL