Unexpected Featured Artist: Jennifer Crupi
Jennifer Crupi received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union School of Art, New York City, and her Master of Fine Arts from SUNY, The College at New Paltz, NY. She has been an exhibiting artist for the past 20 years and her work has been shown in over sixty national and international exhibitions—including exhibits at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., Museum of Arts and Design, New York City, Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, Schmuck 2016, Munich, Germany and the DOX Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic. Jennifer was the recipient of two New Jersey State Council of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships (2012 and 2005) and a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant in 2010. Her work has been featured in numerous print publications including Metalsmith Magazine, Vogue Italia, Taiwan Crafts and the books, Craft for a Modern World, 40 Under 40: Craft Futures, On Body and Soul: Contemporary Armor to Amulets, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, Humor in Craft, among others. Jennifer is a Full Professor at Kean University, Union, NJ where she has taught since 1999. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Museum of Contemporary Craft, OR and the Samuel Dorskey Museum of Art, NY. Jennifer’s work addresses the ways we communicate with each other visually, through body language. Handcrafted in sterling silver or aluminum, these one of a kind, jewelry and interactive objects become instruments for gestural behaviour. Psychologists believe assuming a posture or gesture will make us feel as we would if we performed the gesture naturally. Her works play upon this theory, seeking to impose upon the wearer an altered emotional state as well as a greater understanding of the role our bodies play in communication and expression.
Check out her website at www.jennifercrupi.com, and see her work Ornamental Hands: Figure Four at UNEXPECTED opening November 24th at the CCBC Gallery.