Jennifer Vasher

Biography
Jennifer Vasher  is an interdisciplinary artist working with drawing, sculpture, and architectural installations. Her practice focuses on consumer culture as it relates to the beauty, cleaning, and pharmaceutical industries. In Power Pumps and Super Sprays, Vasher alters everyday disposable domestic containers to comment on mass consumerism and what the artist calls “the cult of cleanliness”. Pyrex flasks, pressure canisters, and spray pumps are warped, stretched, and embellished with 3D printed drips that allude to toxic petroleum found in many household products. She critiques the idea that cleanliness is a measure of goodness and highlights the wastefulness of consumer culture in the age of climate crisis. Vasher uses the colorful palette of common opioids.

Jennifer Vasher’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Transformer in Washington DC, Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Albuquerque Art Museum, 516 Arts in Albuquerque, as well as École d’Art Claude Monet, Aulnay-sous-Bois, and Fondation d’entreprise in France.

“We practice rituals of cleanliness ingrained by a cult of purity. Using industrial materials to mutate familiar forms, my work questions the environmental and social implications of commodified goodness.” —Jennifer Vasher

Education
MFA, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
BFA, Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Ecoles des Beaux Arts, Paris, France

Solo Exhibitions
2022
Living Arts Center, Tulsa, OK (Janaury 2022)

2021
Power Pumps and Super Sprays: Weapons of the Anthropocene, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2019
Plumerai, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2018
Vignette of the Homeland Turf, Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2016
Peter’s Projects, Santa Fe, NM

2009
Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France
Careful the Shelter You Choose, Transformer Gallery, Washington, DC
Tylenol Room, Site-specific installation for Pulse New York, New York, NY
Entitlement, The Past Is Never Dead and Buried, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX

2008
Bring It On!, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA 2007 Entitlement, The Past Is Never Dead and Buried, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Mesa, AZ
Basile Gallery, Herron School of Art & Design, Indianapolis, IN Elasticity: protecting myself, from myself, Box Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2006
Embody, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL

2005
Mira Costa College Art Gallery, Oceanside, CA
Pure Burkley (Vasher,) Pure Gallery, Taos, NM

Group Exhibitions
2021
Lines, birds+Richard, Albuquerque/Berlin, Albuquerque, NM

2020
A Table ! , l’Ecole d’art Claude Monet, Aulnay sous Bois, France
PlayThings,The City of Santa Fe Arts Commission Community Gallery
Reset, birds+Richard, Albuquerque/Berlin, Albuquerque, NM

2019
Twelve Artists to Know Now, Southwest Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2016
From the Ground, Up: Design Here and Now, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM
Coordinates, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2015
In Design, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM

2012
Facons D’Endormis Temps1, Fondation D’Enterprise Frances, Senlis, France
Forum Eugenio do Alemeida, Evora, Portugal
New Mexico Showcase, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM

2011
Trauma, Fondation D’Enterprise Francès, Senlis, Frances
Religion, SCG Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Now! Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM

2010
Valley of the Dolls, Walter Maciel Gallery, Culver City, CA
GLOW, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2009
Giving Shelter, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM

2008
You Were Never Here, Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
Bloc-Busta, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM

2006
Transitions: Albuquerque Contemporary, Albuquerque Art Museum, NM

2005
Pleasurework, Pomona Arts Center, Pomona, CA
Just Short, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Boehm Gallery, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA

Press
2019
Jenn Shapland, 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now: Jennifer Vasher, THE Magazine, January 30

2018
Kathryn Davis, Jennifer Vasher: Vignette of the Homeland Turf, ArtBeat Santa Fe, February 13
Michael Abatemarco, Jennifer Vasher at Axle Contemporary, Pasatiempo, Feb 9
Megan Bennett, Arts and Entertainment: Top Picks for the Week, Albuquerque Journal / Journal North, February 9

2015
Wes Pulkka, Local art show includes pinhole photos by former UNM professor, Venue, Albuquerque Journal, May 3

2012
New Mexico Showcase, Pasatiempo, p.44, March 9-15

2010
Keiko Ohnuma, Home is Where the Art is, Featured Artist, The Sandoval Signpost, June
The X Issue, Workingclass Magazine, February, p. 14

2008
Janet Kaplos, Pulse Review (image), Art in America, May, p. 41
Alex Ross, Gimme Shelter, THE Magazine, March
Jillian Steinhauer, Pulse Installations Ask: Tired of White Bread?, Artinfo.com, March 29

2004
Zane Fisher, Jennifer Burkley: Elasticity: Protecting Myself from Myself, THE Magazine

2003
Zane Fisher, Boxer Rebellion, Santa Fe Reporter, Nov. 12-18
Carol Cheh, Pleasurework, Art Papers, July / August

2002
Zane Fisher, Holy Cow Masks and Sex toys, Batman!, The Santa Fe Reporter, Oct. 23-29

2001
Rebecca Schoenkopf, ’Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone,’ Live fast die young and leave a pretty exhibit, OC Weekly, July 20-26
Vivian Letran, Worst-Case Scenarios Revisited, LA Times, July 11
Georgia Temple, Gallery 1114, Midland Reporter-Telegram, May
Sharon Denning, All Dolled Up, Odessa American, May 1
Tom Collins, projecting erotic desire, Journal North Santa Fe, Feb. 6
Richard Garriott-Stejskal, Bittersweet, Sponges, and Body Parts at The Harwood Art Center, Crosswinds, Feb. 15-22

Press Release
2021 Power Pumps and Super Sprays: Weapons of the Anthropocene at Richard Levy Gallery

2019 Plumerai at Richard Levy Gallery

2015 Coordinates at Richard Levy Gallery

2009 Glow at Richard Levy Gallery