JEANNE JAFFE: Stories of Transformations

Jeanne Jaffe is a multi-disciplinary artist best known for her work in installation, sculpture, and stop motion animation.   Her work is influenced by an interest in language, literature, psychology, and history and explores how we construct identity, our world and our value systems. Jaffe is Professor Emeritus of Sculpture at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a long-term visiting professor at Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in China. 

Jaffe has had 20 solo exhibitions including most recently at L’Space in NYC and Spinello Projects in Miami.  Her works have been domestically and internationally exhibited in museums such as the Mino Washi Museum in Mino, Japan, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art Museum in Philadelphia, the Woodmere Art Museum, James A. Michener Art Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, and the Hunterdon Art Museum. Her work is included in collections at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Museum, at Alfred Ceramic Art Museum at Alfred University, the Sculpture Garden at Abington Art Center, and the Zimmerli Art Museum. 

She has participated in artist residencies at Anderson Ranch artist residency program in Colorado, Deeering Estate artist residency in Miami, Mino Artist Residency in Mino, Japan, Yaddo in New York state, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Women’s Studio Workshop, Rutgers Innovative Printmaking Workshop in New Jersey, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Her work has been reviewed in Art in America and Sculpture Magazine. Jaffe currently lives and works in South Florida. 

My later works explore how world narratives shape our lives as we enter language and culture. In installations such as “Alice in Dystopia”, "Little Red Riding Hood as a Crime Scene”, and “Elegy for Tesla“ folktales, pop culture narratives, literature, and moments in history are deconstructed and reimagined through a contemporary lens, creating space for new interpretations. - JJ

ABOUT THE WIND CHALLENGE

 In 1992 Jaffe was awarded a Challenge exhibition. It is fascinating to see how early in her career she developed key, ongoing elements of her artistic vocabulary, materials and practice.

Established in 1978 as "The Challenge" and renamed "The Wind Challenge" after Dina and Jerry Wind began to support it in the 1990’s, Fleisher’s annual juried competition is committed to featuring the work of exceptional artists living in the Philadelphia region. Since its inception, the series has supported the professional journeys of hundreds of emerging artists, many of whom have gone on to have significant careers. Over the years the annual exhibitions have been seen by thousands of visitors, students, art-world professionals and other new audiences.⁠⁠

 Rebus, c. 1998, painted papier-mâché, string, dimensions varied

FUN FACT

 Dina and Jerry attended Jaffe’s Fleisher show, and throughout the 1990’s purchased several works which they installed in their Gladwyne, PA home.  They displayed the pieces in dialogue with their predominantly abstract collection, and when recently asked about it, Jerry Wind reflected: 

 "We were attracted to the way Jeanne approached the figure by fragmenting and abstracting body parts. The tactile materiality of her art also spoke to us."