Bio
Jennifer Cantley is a visual artist and gallery curator living in the Toledo, OH area who merges physical science with visual art to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms that make up the natural world. The artist's work, which has been exhibited and sold nationally and is included in the collection at the Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering & Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, reflects this fusion of scientific inquiry and artistic expression. Jennifer holds an MFA from Kendall College of Art & Design, as well as a BFA from Eastern Michigan University.
Artist Statement
My art explores the emotions elicited by the frailty and impending mortality of my loved ones and myself by envisioning the underlying chemical and macromolecular mechanisms of these mental and physical processes.
Life is unpredictable. Life is messy. We as humans, at times wield science in our attempt to understand and control this chaos. In doing so, we can see how life is forever locked in a continual process where we decay to the soil and our carbonaceous building blocks are recycled to form a new living being which itself returns to the soil. The cycle repeats, endlessly reimaging the macroscopic projection of those same building blocks. Yet, each living thing traverses through its own peculiar trail of tiny tragedies that all work to drive it back into the earth. My art is a vehicle of exploration to understand the complicated journey life goes through.
On a completely different note, I also do pet portraits.
EXHIBITIONS
2024 - River East Art Festival, River East Gallery, Toledo, OH
2024 - Artomatic, 419 Gallery Momentum Festival, Toledo, OH
2023 - Making the Cut, Shoebox Arts, Los Angeles, CA
2022 - UNDISCLOSED, Martin D. Porter Gallery, Toledo, OH
2021 - Closing the Distance, Education Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2020 - The First 7, Center Gallery, Chattahoochee Hills, GA
2019 - Spring Showcase, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, GA
2019 - Atlanta Science Festival, Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA
2019 - Aggregation, Limelight Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2018 - Activating the Apparatus II, B Complex, Atlanta, GA
2018 - The New South III, Kai Lin Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2018 - Atlanta Science Festival, Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA
2018 - Art-Science Symposium, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
2018 - Everything is Art, Limelight Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2018 - Festival of Insignificance, Emory Visual Arts Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2017 - Til Human Voices Wake Us, Fed Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI
2017 - Fabrications, Alluvium Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI
2017 - Portmanteau, Van Singel Fine Art Center, Byron Center, MI
2016 - Pseudoscience, Solo Exhibition and Performance, Fed Galleries, Grand Rapids, MI
2016 - Group Exhibition, Gallery 602, Holland, MI
2016 - Fall Group Exhibition, The Art(ery), Grand Rapids, MI
2016 - Masters: A Group Exhibition, Alluvium Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI
2015 - Winter Group Exhibition, The Art(ery), Grand Rapids, MI
2015 - Graduate Student Group Exhibition, Gallery 611, Grand Rapids, MI
2015 - Venus Rising, Tangent Gallery, Detroit, MI
2014 - Ypsilanti Art Festival, Ypsilanti, MI
2013 - First Fridays Art Show, Bona Sera, Ypsilanti, MI
2012 - Student Honors Exhibition, University Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI
2012 - Killing Time, Injuring Eternity, University Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI
2012 - Manifest Content, University Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI
2009 - Semester Art Show, Ganton Art Gallery, Spring Arbor, MI
SELECT CURATED EXHIBITIONS
2025 - Amy Beeler: Domestic Lines, Quiet Rituals, Robert C. & Susan Savage Community Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2025 - Chris "Chilly" Rodriguez: The Journey So Far, Robert C. & Susan Savage Community Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2025 - Shoot This Not That: Youth Behind the Lens, Education Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2024 - Bernadine Rais: Souvenirs, Robert C. & Susan Savage Community Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2024 - Brenda Singletary: Reflections of Spirit, Robert C. & Susan Savage Community Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2024 - dirtykics: In Order to Live, Robert C. & Susan Savage Community Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2023 - Jordy R. Poma: Las Curiosas, Robert C. & Susan Savage Community Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2020 - The First 7, Center Gallery at StudioSwan, Chattahoochee Hills, GA
2019 - Rejects Only, Lime Light Gallery, Atlanta, GA
PUBLISHED WORK
2018 - Liquitex Effects Mediums Staff Contest, Facebook.com: May, 2018.
2016 - Genetic Engineering: The Art of Genetics, Kendall College of Art and Design Archives:
April, 2016 http://hdl.handle.net/2323/5755
2015 - Seeing with Electrons: The Scanning Electron Microscope, Kendall College of Art and Design Archive: December, 2015 http://hdl.handle.net/2323/5356
2012 - Eastern Magazine: Spring 2012 Issue. Eastern Michigan University Press: April, 2015. Photograph
2011 - Roller Derby packs Buhr Park in the A2D2 Brawlstars Home Debut, AnnArbor.com News: Sept. 19, 2011
COLLECTIONS
2021 - Amit Reddi Lab, Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
2018 - Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech Collaboration with Biochemistry Ph.D. Candidate Courtney Moore, Atlanta, GA
2015 - Adrian School of Massage, Adrian, MI
2008 - Stubnitz Environmental Education Center, Adrian, MI
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
2024-current - Jury Board, Ann Arbor Art Fair, The Original, Ann Arbor MI
2023 - Award Juror, Ann Arbor Art Fair, The Original, Ann Arbor, MI
2021 - Jury Member, FOCUS show 2021, University of Toledo Center for Visual Art, Toledo, OH
2018 - NASA/NSF CCE T-shirt design contest winner. Collaboration with Biochemistry Ph.D. Candidate Martin C, Atlanta, GA
2015-2017 - Graduate Fellowship, Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MI
2012 - Study Abroad, Rome & Florence, Italy