Jill McLennan documents a constantly changing urban environment that is both thriving and deteriorating simultaneously. She is inspired by the artistic movement “Ruin Lust” (from Germany) and is drawn to landscapes of abandoned structures left in a beautified state of ruin. In working with these ideas she adds a futurist outlook to her oil paintings showing the possibilities of mother earth to overcome the destruction of human kind. She also envisions the potential of people to appreciate and nurture our planet towards a more sustainable future where wild nature and human structure can coincide. In Industrial Resolution, McLennan includes drawings, mixed media, built pieces and paintings that explore the ideas of industry, history, urban nature, and our outlook towards a future of human and natural cooperation.
McLennan grew up in Providence, RI, a city evolving from an industrially dated past, and went to Hampshire College on a farm in Massachusetts. She has lived in the Bay Area for 14 years working as an Arts Educator and a practicing artist. She teaches at the DeYoung Museum, the Randall Museum, Sequoia Elementary Schoo,l and Spectrum Centers. She works for the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) and started her own business JMAC, Jill McLennan Arts and Community, to encourage creativity and community outreach with youth. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Bay Area and New England and she has been showing with Mercury 20 Gallery for 5 years. Recently she received the Harrington Gallery Merit Award in their exhibition Fresh Works for her piece, Dear Nature.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Artist Talks and Reception: Saturday, August 30, 4-6pm
Oakland Art Murmur First Friday: September 5, 6-9pm
Third Thursdays on 25th Street: August 22 + September 18, 6-8pm