Jen Dwyer

In my recent work I use fanciful, intricate porcelain mirror frames, candelabras and miscellaneous vessels that merge iconology from antiquity, rococo, pop, surrealism and the uncanny, infused with contemporary feminist themes. I want to create familiar forms with

complicated compositions of vases, candelabras, mirrors that upon further investigation reveal themselves, attempting to humorously change the familiar to the bizarre. I gather imagery across cultural lines and histories, such as Sèvres porcelain, Wedgwood figurines to modern kitsch and every day objects, to create decorative quasi-functional sculptures that offer a remixed interpretation of utopia.

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Jen Dwyer grew up in the Bay Area, California. Dwyer attended University of Washington in Seattle, WA, and received dual degrees in Ceramics and Environmental Science. She has been awarded numerous grants, scholarships and fellowships, including the Pottery Center in Jingdezhen, China; Salem Art Works, in upstate New York; Trestle Gallery Residency program in Brooklyn; and Kala Arts Center in Berkeley, CA. Prior to starting graduate school, Dwyer was based in Brooklyn. She recently completed her master’s degree program at University of Notre Dame, where she received a Full Fellowship and graduated in May 2019. She has received numerous interviews and publications, including Create Magazine, Vogue, Hyperallergic, Newsweek, Vice, and I-D magazine, among others. Dwyer is one of the featured artists in the book The New Age of Ceramics published by Hannah Stouffer. Dwyer's work asks questions about the commodification of women's body through an art historical lens fused with in our current digital age, as well as drawing on inspiration from her lived experiences. When she is not making art she is dancing, running or doing hot yoga.