Jessica Drenk is an American artist raised in Montana, where she developed an appreciation for the natural world which remains an important inspiration to her artwork today. Tactile and textural, her sculptures highlight the chaos and beauty that can be found in simple materials. Her work is a process-driven exploration of material, often investigating the intersection between the man-made and the natural.
Drenk’s work can be found in private collections throughout the world and galleries across the United States. Her work is a part of several corporate collections, such as that of Fidelity Investments, Frost Bank, and The Macallan distillery in Scotland, as well as university collections, including that of the Yale University Art Gallery. Drenk has been the recipient of several awards, including International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, and her work has been pictured in Sculpture and Interior Design magazines, as well as The Workshop Guide to Ceramics.
Drenk received an MFA in 3D Art from the University of Arizona in 2007 and a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College in 2002. She lives and works in upstate New York.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
My work is an inquiry into materiality: what makes up the objects that surround us as well as the composition of the natural world. I am interested in how parts combine to create a whole and the intricacies of shape and texture found in the world at every scale. In treating everyday objects as raw material to sculpt, I practice a form of conceptual alchemy: through physically manipulating these objects their meanings become transmuted. Each piece is a direct response to material—a subversion of the meanings associated with it, and a reference to the life cycle of objects through time.
Aggregate Fault 3, 2023 Junk mail 34 x 60 x 4 inches
Aggregate 4, 2020
Junk mail, cardboard 51 x 32 inches
Circulation 25, 2023
Books, wax 48 x 48 x 2 inches
Colony, 2017 Pencils 35 x 30 inches
Compression 3, 2020
Books, wax on wood panel
44 x 38 x 2 inches
Compression 6, 2020 Books, wax 84 x 37 inches
Compression 7, 2020 Books, wax 84 x 37 inches
Contour 3, 2020 Plywood 47 x 38 inches
Contour 4, 2021
Plywood
71 x 71 x 5 inches
Dendrite, 2020 Q-tips, plaster 144 x 240 inches
