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BIO

Vandana Jain is an artist and textile designer based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her Bachelor’s from New York University and went on to study Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work explores the intersections of pattern and symbol, and spirituality and consumerism. She uses a variety of materials, most notably: sugar, shattered auto glass and artists tape. Recently, she has started making weavings from found materials.

Jain’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In the last few years, she has had solo projects at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY (2018); Lakeeren Gallery in Mumbai, India (2012); Station Independent Projects, Lower East Side, NY (2013); and Smack Mellon and BRIC House in Brooklyn, NY (2014). She was a Visual Arts resident at Pioneer Works in Fall of 2023.

She has received several awards for her work including the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency, and the Emerging Artist’s Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park. Her work has been profiled in Artforum, The New York Times, Art Slant, Mumbai Boss, Kyoorius and Beautiful Decay.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I often appropriate and re-use of byproducts of consumerism, working with logos, slogans, packaging and wrappers to create artworks that question mass consumption and capitalism.

The recent weavings incorporate found materials, taken from the “free” piles around the city, juxtaposing them with traditional weaving techniques and materials. These tapestries are literal ornaments of our material excess. I am interested in systems of value, and how cheap it is to make a birthday banner, and how expensive it is to knit your own sweater.

CV

DOWNLOAD CV (PDF)

SOLOS AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

    2022

  • Formations, King Manor Museum, Jamaica, Queens, NY.

    • 2018

  • Artisanal Capitalism, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY
  • Quid Pro Quo: Taeim Ha and Vandana Jain, Crossing Art, NY

    • 2015

  • And If the Devil Is Six..., Station Independent, NYC

    • 2014

  • Dazzle, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
  • Small Solo: House of Brands and Alphabet, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY

    • 2013

  • Shorthand of Luxury, Station Independent, NYC

    • 2012

  • The Invisible Hand Guides Us All to Our Gainful End, Lakeeren, Mumbai, India

RESIDENCIES AND FELLOWSHIPS

    2023

  • Pioneer Works Visual Arts Studio Residency

    • 2015

  • Joan Mitchell Center NOLA Studio Program

    • 2010

  • Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant

    • 2008

  • LMCC Workspace Program

    • 2007

  • Elsewhere, Greensboro, NC, Summer
  • Emerging Artists Fellowship, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY

    • 2004

  • Artists in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum for the Arts, Fall

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

    2023

  • Illiquid Objects, Studio NineDee, Chelsea, NY.
  • Pliable Plane, Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY.
  • Disegno-in-Motion, Marymount Manhattan College, NY, NY.
  • Threading the Needle, Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

    • 2022

  • Formations: The Southeast Queens Biennial, curated by Rejin Leys, at York College Gallery and King Manor Museum, Jamaica, Queens.

    • 2021

  • Marker, Emblem, Symbol, Signal: Artists Reflect on the Flag, New York Historical Society, NY
  • Dawn of Aquarius, curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala, online at lakeeren.org

    • 2020

  • Electoral Electric, Dineen Hull Gallery, Hudson County Community College, NJ
  • MESS: Marker Emblem Symbol Signal, Standard Space, Sharon, CT

    • 2019

  • Mounds, Piles and Massings, Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall, NJ
  • Malled and Walled: American Style, Turbine, Glarus, Switzerland
  • In Sickness and Health, ABC No Rio in Exile, Bulletspace, NY, NY

    • 2018

  • For Which It Stands, Old Stone House, Park Slope, Brooklyn
  • Beyond Transnationalism, AIFACS Gallery, The Raza Foundation, New Delhi; BDL Museum, Mumbai

    • 2017

  • Lucid Dreams and Distant Visions: South Asian Art in the Diaspora, Asia Society, NY
  • Fractured Union, Brooklyn Fireproof, Brooklyn, NY
  • Ornate Activate, Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee, WI

    • 2016

  • Remix Re(memory), No Longer Empty Curatorial Lab, Jamaica Colosseum Mall, Queens, NY
  • Chez BKLYN, Galerie SE Konst, Falun, Sweden
  • Nature Pops!, Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
  • (In)Finite Futures, ABC No Rio, NY
  • Forever Now, The Mars Lab, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
  • Exquisite Corpus: The Maize, New Jerusalem, PA

    • 2015

  • Living Room, Artisterium 8, Karavasla, Tbilisi Georgia
  • Value of Food, St John the Divine, NYC
  • Adhere, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ
  • Ornate Activate, Shirin Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
  • Live For Now, Die for Later, mural, MALLONY Festival, Marijampole, Lithuania

    • 2014

  • Zines+ and the World of ABC No Rio, Center for Book Arts, NYC
  • Screensavers: Travels in Sleep, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
  • Surveillapocalypse, Five Myles, Brooklyn, NY
  • Sprunq!, 292 Gallery, NY, NY
  • Twist to Exist, Winter Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia

    • 2013

  • Debris Field, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, NY
  • Her Stories, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
  • Summer Break, Station Independent Projects, LES, NY
  • Ghost Modernism, Quartair, Den Haag, Netherlands

    • 2012

  • Toothsome, Bulletspace, LES, NYC
  • Her Stories, SAWCC 15th anniversary exhibition, Queens Museum
  • Arctypes and Well Rounded Characters, Studio 371, Jersey City, NJ
  • Amplify Action, Skylight Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
  • Trash Talk, Art Connects, Spattered Columns Gallery, Soho, NYC

    • 2011

  • Spin Off: Contemporary Art Circling the Mandala, Koffler Center, Toronto, Canada
  • Open/Close, Cuchifritos in Essex Street Market, NY
  • Can’t Hear the Revolution, Kunsthalle Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY
  • Document, ABC No Rio, NYC
  • Apartment Drafting 3, NYC

    • 2010

  • New Sincerity, Brooklyn Fireproof, NY
  • Lost Symbols, St. Cecilia’s Convent, NY
  • No Assumption, Minneapolis, MN
  • Into the Void, Index Art Center, Newark, NJ
  • Structures Within an Intervention, The Guild, NY

    • 2009

  • Good Looking, Grey Noise Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
  • Domestic Policy, The Guild, NY
  • God Don’t Like Ugly, The Church of St Paul the Apostle, NY
  • Transitional Aesthetics, 798 Biennale, Beijing, China
  • Threads: Interweaving Textu(r)al Meanings, Center for Book Arts, NYC
  • Wonder What the Others Are Up To?, Gallery OED, Bangalore, India

    • 2008

  • Labyrinth, Exit Art, NYC
  • Metropoles, Jamaica Center for Art and Learning, Queens, NY
  • Peekskill Project, Peekskill, NY
  • Homecoming, ABC No Rio, NYC
  • Exploding the Lotus, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL
  • Emergence, Governors Island, NYC

    • 2007

  • Drawn, Hanged and Quartered, Pace University, NYC
  • Emerging Artists’ Fellowship, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
  • The Occidental Artist, NurtureArt, Brooklyn, NY
  • Emergency Room, P.S.1, NY
  • Jiffy PoP, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY

    • 2006

  • Pursuit of Happiness, Sarah Bowen Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
  • Thanks: Returning the Favor, apexart, NYC
  • Tropicalisms, Jersey City Museum, NJ
  • You Were Never Here, Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
  • A Distant Mirror, M.Y. Art Prospects, NY
  • No Money Down, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ
  • The Centre Cannot Hold, Toronto Free Gallery, Toronto, Canada
  • Well Read, NurtureArt, Brooklyn, NY
  • Sampler Stitch, Dam Stuhltrager, Brooklyn, NY

    • 2005

  • Copilandia, Centro de arte de Sevilla (caS), Seville, Spain
  • Megacorp, PS122, NYC
  • 16 Rooms, Brooklyn Navy Yard, NY
  • Dreamland Artist’s Club, Creative Time, Coney Island, NY
  • Fatal Love, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY
  • Corporate Bodies, Momenta, Brooklyn, NY
  • Primary, Secondary: Contemporary Drawing, Brookdale College, NJ
  • Sub-version, PS 122, NY

    • 2004

  • Territories, Gallery ArtsIndia, NY
  • Founding Fathers, ABC No Rio, NYC
  • AIM24, Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY
  • Eat Me, 65 Hope Street Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

SPECIAL PROJECTS

  • Arrow In, play by Nina Morrison, Dixon Place, 2012.
  • Girl Adventure: Parts 1-4, play by Nina Morrison, Dixon Place, 2011.
  • Market, (representing ABC No Rio), Living as Form, Creative Time, 2011.
  • In Peace and War: 3 Teens Kill 4, Theatre 80 St. Marks, 2011.
  • Book of Stamps, ed. by Sina Najafi, Cabinet, 2008.

CURATORIAL WORK

  • Unartisanal, ABC No Rio online exhibition.
  • The Game Show, ABC No Ro in Exile at BulletSpace, NY, NY,
  • Against Competition/Towards Mutual Aid, ABC No Rio in Exile at Flux Factory, Queens, NY.
  • Ghost Modernism, Quartair, the Hague, the Netherlands.
  • Toothsome, Bulletspace, LES, NY.
  • WW$: Money Money Money, _gaia. ABC No Rio, NY; Lex Leonard Gallery, Jersey City, NJ.
  • Map Show, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY.
  • Ides of March, ABC No Rio, NY. Founding Fathers, ABC No Rio, NY.
  • 4th Independents' Biennial, Charas/El Bohio, NY.

    • PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS

    SELECTED PRESS (PDF)
     
    • Foran, Jack. Artisanal Capitalism, The Public, March 28, 2018.
    • Massier, John. Catalog essay.Artisanal Capitalism, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, March 2018
    • Young, Stephanie. Vandana Jain Masks a Sinister Intention Behind Beautiful Optical Murals, Beautiful Decay, January 15, 2015.
    • Pangburn, DJ. Dazzle Camouflage Hides Logos in Optical Illusions, Creators Project, Sept 25, 2014.
    • Howard, Christopher. Shorthand of Luxury, Artforum.com, January, 2013.
    • Laluyan, Oscar. Symbols of Personal Luxury, Artefuse.com, Jan 14, 2013.
    • Painting by Logo, Mumbai Boss, Sept 13, 2012.
    • Cotter, Holland. Her Stories, The New York Times, August 16, 2012.
    • Shah, Pooja. Vandana Jain, Kyoorius, pp. 90-91, Fall 2011.
    • Hilgenberg, Holly. Home is Where the Art Is, Twin Cities Runoff, Dec 11, 2010.
    • Roalf, Peggy. Stitched Stories at Center for Book Arts, Design Arts Daily, July 8, 2009.
    • Manmadhan, Prema. Caught Between Two Cultures, The Hindu, April 27, 2009.
    • Genocchio, Benjamin. Maps of All Sorts Charting Mind and Space, The New York Times, March 16, 2008.
    • Gardner, James. A Blast from the Past, The New York Sun, March 27, 2008.
    • Mils, Michael. East Wind a Blowin’, Broward Palm Beach New Times, April 3, 2008.
    • McAdams, Shane. An Exhibition worth Unwrapping, Downtown Express, Vol 19, issue 33.
    • Genocchio, Benjamin. Coloring a Tropical Paradise,” The New York Times, December 3, 2006.
    • McAdams, Shane. ArtSeen: Well Read, Brooklyn Rail, April 2006.
    • Davis, Ben. Sign of the Times, arnet.com, August 17, 2005.
    • Kennedy, Randy. Flash, Dash and Now Art, The New York Times, June 17, 2005, pE33.
    • Scott, Andrea K. Brave New World, Time Out New York, March 17-23, 2005, p88.
    • Cotter, Holland. Taking a Magical Flight Through Modern India, The New York Times, March 4, 2005, pE33.
    • Herzberg, Julia P. AIM24, ArtNexus No. 54, September–December 2004, pp 176-177.
    • Genocchio, Benjamin. A Chance to Fill Up on Visual Treats, The New York Times, April 25, 2004.
    • Stillman, Nick. Introducing..., NYFA Current, May 5, 2004.
    • Cotter, Holland. Where Witty Meets Gritty, The New York Times, Nov 15, 2002, pE31.
    • Smith, Roberta. The New York Times, September 13, 1996, pC30.

    BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

    • Born in Queens
    • BFA, New York University
    • Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY