Jenny Schmid
(Bainbridge Island, Washington, 1969 - )
North America, American
An associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Jenny Schmid is based in Minneapolis where she also oversees bikini press international, the print studio where she produces screen prints, lithographs, linocut banners, etchings and mezzotints. Schmid, who holds a B.A. in political economy from Macalester College and her M.F.A. from the University of Michigan, also works in animation and performance, creates installations and undertakes commissions.
On her website, Schmid comments: “my work explores ideas of gender, identity and liberty, drawing from the tradition of social commentary and humorous takes on how identities are constructed (and destructed). In my work I express my desire for feminism to be realized through the liberation of boys and girls. By creating active girls (often with big heads) and lounging and reading boys, I subvert the traditional gaze of Western art where the passive female body is most often the focal point. In my invented land, the boys are usually on display and the girls are watching them, but all the characters appear to be enjoying their plight.” Schmid ‘s work, which typically includes elements of humor and satire, is informed by wide-ranging influences that include sources as diverse as medieval engravings, Pieter Brueghel, Japanese woodcuts, comics and rock music.
Schmid’s creative activities include video installations and performances with Ali Momeni (Wellesley College 2012, Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2011) and exhibitions at Davidson Galleries in Seattle, the University of Arizona Museum of Art and the Spencer Art Museum in Lawrence, Kansas. Her awards include a Fulbright Fellowship (1998, for study in Bratislava, Slovakia) and grants from the Bush Foundation (2005-06) and the Jerome Foundation (2010-11). Among the collections in which Schmid’s prints are represented as the Block Museum at Northwestern University, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Spencer Art Museum.
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