Born in Sydney Australia in 1961, Jen lived and worked in Austria as an artist and designer for 7 years and since 1995 lives on the Far South Coast of NSW. With a background in ceramics and graphic design Jen has embraced 3D form with a passion, having devoted the past 11 years to creating steel sculptures, which aim to challenge the intrinsic solid nature of her chosen materials, Corten and stainless steel. Continually refining her skills, Jen is seeking a vision for the perfection of form.
She has completed residencies in sculpture at ANU School of Art and Design Canberra and Red Deer College Alberta, Canada as well as teaching at the Summer Art School at Red Deer College in Canada in 2013.
Frequently exhibiting in sculpture shows around the country, Jen has received: the COX Acquisitive Prize in 2020, 2018, 2014 & 2012, the Snowy Hydro Environmental Award 2018, Sculpture on Clyde Emerging Artist Outdoor Sculpture Award 2018 and the ANU Residency Award 2013. She will be exhibiting at Sculpture by the Sea Bondi later this year.
Jen has also created two public sculptures in NSW and is working on a major 21m high place marker sculpture commission in conjunction with Reading University, to be installed in the UK in 2022.
Jen is a “creative”. Making art in one form or another has always been a part of her life. She feels compelled to create. Drawing inspiration from the untouched far south coast environment, her work has been informed, not by the usual grand and dramatic landscapes, but by the miniature aspects of marine plant life and the temporary, random tracery of patterns and graphic marks found on the shoreline. Her fluid, organic forms with an interplay of shadows and negative space, create pieces with a multilayered presence that you can really look into. Mallinson’s contemporary works explore the connection between the emotions evoked by the surrounding natural environments and our relationship to it.
Award-winning sculptor, painter, and graphic designer, Jen Mallinson has a reputation for creating three-dimensional works that convey a sensitive aesthetic and abstract vision. Her work is innovative and intriguing and very much a response to place.
2021 SWELL ARTWORK – Brain Freeze, Jen Mallinson
Like fragments of brain coral washed ashore, this multidimensional work is aimed at bringing awareness to the effects of warming waters on our coral reefs.
Brain corals are important reef builders, a ‘robust’ coral with the unique capacity to generate an essential amino acid. New research suggests that this fact makes them more resilient to the impacts of bleaching, providing more hope for the survival of coral reefs globally.
With penetrative patterning, this sculpture shows its resilient life force through a slow breath like internal illumination.
Instagram: @jen_mallinson_sculpture
Website: www.jenmallinson.com
Come and see for yourself at SWELL Sculpture Festival, Pacific Parade, Currumbin 10-19 September.