Jered Sprecher bio

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Jered Sprecher is an artist who makes paintings, drawings, and installations that abstract the landscape to explore the precarious relationship between nature and technology. His work wrestles with the beauty and complexity of the environment and how we as humans interact with the world around us both directly and mediated through technology. He received his BA from Concordia University and his MFA from The University of Iowa. Sprecher has exhibited at The Drawing Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Des Moines Art Center, Hunter Museum, Asheville Art Museum, and Espai d’art Contemporani de Castelló. He has had solo exhibitions at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York; Gallery 16, San Francisco; Stephen Zevitas Gallery, Boston; Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles; and the Knoxville Museum of Art. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Bailey Opportunity Grant, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Sprecher has been awarded residencies at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, the Chinati Foundation, The American Academy in Rome, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He is a Professor in the School of Art at the University of Tennessee. He lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Education

MFA The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2002 (with honors)
MA The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2001
BA Concordia University, Seward, NE, 1999

Honors + Awards (select)

2023 Associate Fellow, American Academy in Rome, sponsored by University of Tennessee
2019 Individual Artist Fellowship, Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville, TN
2018-21 Jefferson Prize, Office of the Chancellor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
2017-18 Ann & Steve Bailey Opportunity Grant, Arts & Culture Alliance, Knoxville, TN
2017 Grant Recipient, National Endowment for the Arts, Challenge Grant, Jered Sprecher: Outside In at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
2017 Artist in Residence, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA. 2013 Artist in Residence, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
2013 FINALIST,5×5 Castello 2013, Premi Internacional d’art Contemporani Disputacio de Castello, Spain.
2009 Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
2007 Artist-in-Residence, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin Ireland 2003 Studio Fellowship, Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, New York, NY

Solo Exhibitions (Select)

2023
Wonder & Dread, whitespace gallery, Atlanta, GA
2021
House of Leaves, University Art Gallery, University of the South, Sewanee, TN
Summer Noise, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
2018
Divided Light, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY
Grammar of the Ground, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA
seeing, McGlothlin Center for the Arts, Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA
Still We Move, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN
2017
Outside In, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
2016
Now & Not Yet, Marxhausen Gallery Concordia University, Seward, NE
Jered Sprecher: Recent Work, Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville, TN
2015
The Hollow That Echoes, Gallery Protocol, Gainesville, FL
2014
Half Moon Maker, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA Stacking Stones, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA Beats/Breaks, Staple Goods, New Orleans, LA
Here & There, Tops Gallery, Memphis, TN (October-November)
Jered Sprecher, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY.
2013
Jered Sprecher, The Locker Plant, Chinati Foundation Marfa, TX (August)
I Always Lie, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY (February-March)
Dreams of Architects and Poets, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (January 2013)
2012
Fraktur, Times Club/Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA (catalog).
2011 Als Ick Kan, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
Shadows of Friction, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA
2010
Monumental Dust, Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
Jered Sprecher Solo Project, VoltaNY, New York, NY
Wen U R Luvd it iz t% much, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN
2009
Digging in the Dirt, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY
Jered Sprecher: Recent Work, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
Drift, Cress Gallery of Art, the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN
Truth in Tension, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA
2007
Furniture of the Universe, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY
Jered Sprecher, The Art Gallery of Knoxville, TN (catalog)
Jered Sprecher, Process Room, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2005
Never Finished, GFL Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Cabinet, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IL
PTG. a in, Olive Tjaden Gallery, School of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Two + Three Person Exhibitions

2022
Heather Hartman & Jered Sprecher, Channel to Channel, Chattanooga, TN
Brian Jobe & Jered Sprecher, Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA.
2015
Michael Jones McKean & Jered Sprecher: Three Carbon Tons, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN
2010
Pictures Hold Us Captive: Carrie Moyer & Jered Sprecher, Downtown Gallery, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Mark Holmes, Britta Bogers, & Jered Sprecher, Devening Projects, Chicago, IL
2004
New Spaces: Dan Attoe & Jered Sprecher, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IL

Artist Projects

2020 Organizer and Artist, In A Speculative Light: The Portrait Project, three-day portrait drawing project as part of “In a Speculative Light: James Baldwin & Beauford Delaney” symposium organized by Amy Elias and hosted by The University of Tennessee Humanities Center.

Group Exhibitions (Select)

2022
Eraser, Ground Floor Gallery, Birmingham, AL.
Summer, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece.
2021
Re: Representation Part II, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
A Flowering, Binder Projects, Memphis, TN
Currents, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN Undercurrents, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN Little Ritual, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA.
The Violets in the Mountains Have Broken the Rocks, Pt. 2, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA
Seconds, Minnesota Street Projects & Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA,
2020
All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA.
Mirage, Sawyer Yards – Sabine Gallery, Houston, TX.
Beyond Bounds 2020, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS. If You Like This, You’ll Love That, Collar Works, Troy, NY. (virtual exhibition) Knoxville Local, East Tennessee Foundation, organized by Tri-Star Arts, Knoxville, TN.
Currents, Knoxville, Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
2019
Appalachia Now, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC.
Decoy: work by Tauba Auerbach, Trudy Benson, Corin Hewitt, Tara Donovan, Vik Muniz, & Jered Sprecher, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
2018
Anxious Abstraction, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
Weekend, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL.
Fiction (With Only Daylight Between Us), Vol., Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Currents, Knoxville, Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
2017
New New York: Abstract Painting in the 21st Century, The Curator Gallery, New York, NY.
Esho Funi, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA.
Weekend, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL.
Life’s Rich Pageant, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY.
Currents, Knoxville, Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
Drawing Performance: Abstraction from Germany and the United States, Gallery Inga Kondeyne, Berlin, Germany
DNA Residency Artists, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2016
Touch Between Image and Surface, University of Akron, Akron, OH.
trans_late, PLUG Projects, Kansas City, MO.
Geometrix: Line, Form, Subversion, Curator’s Office, Washington D.C.
2015
After Living in the Room of Réalités Nouvelles, Sonce Alexander, Los Angeles, CA
Currents, Knoxville, Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
New on View II, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
Hither & Yon, Fuel & Lumber Company, Birmingham Alabama.
New New York: Abstract Painting in the 21st Century, The University of Hawai’I at Manoa Art Gallery, Manoa, Hawaii.
2014
Hunter Invitational III, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN Genesis Forward Battery, Underdonk, Ridgewood, NY (organized by hkjb) Higher Learning, Lehman College CUNY, New York, NY & Hamilton College, NY Fiction (with only daylight between us), Neon Heater Gallery, Findlay, OH
Collection, Ecole Superleure d’Art et de Design Grenoble/Valence, Grenoble, France
9/50 Summit, Atlanta Comtemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Everyday Abstraction, Anderson Gallery, Drake University, Des Moines, IA
Currents, Knoxville, Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
Orphans in the Storm, Lovey Town, http://loveytown.org
2013
5 x 5 Castelló 2013, Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló, Spain
wintergarten, Rasche Ripken Berlin, Berlin, Germany
The New Picture Plane, Leslie Heller Workspace, New York, NY
2012
wintergarten: paperworks, Rasche Ripken Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Art on Paper 2012, 42nd Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
Gray Full, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY.
Abstract Kansas City, Nerman Museum, Kansas City, KS. Liquid Light, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN. WAVERS, Studio 204, Brooklyn, NY.
2011
FAX, Knoxville Museum of Art, (organized by The Drawing Center, Independent Curators International)
Ruptures, Hoffman LaChance Contemporary, St. Louis, MO
Working Title, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY
2010
Geometric Progressions, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY
Precarity and the Butter Tower, CTRL Gallery, Houston, TX.
Playing Fields: Contemporary Painting, School of Art Gallery, University of Indiana, Bloomington, IN
Dual Vision, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IL
New American Talent, Arthouse, Austin, TX
Next Next Art, (BAM) Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
2004
Ordinary Aura, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
2002
Iowa Artists 2002, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA

Collections (select)

Aslan Foundation, Knoxville, TN
Museum of Modern Art/ Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, NY, NY Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS New York Public Library, Special Collections, New York, NY Progressive Corporation, Cleveland, OH
Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS Tama Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
The University of Iowa, Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
The University of Tennessee, Ewing Gallery of Art, Knoxville, TN

Exhibition Catalogs + Publications and Documentaries (select)

2022 Brian Edmonds, Eraser, volume 4, Curating Contemporary, Birmingham, AL. https://issuu.com/brianedmonds.com/docs/eraser4online
2020 Joan Waltemath ed., Nancy Princenthal, Raphael Rubinstein, Jutta Koether, Barry Schwabsky, contributors, Re Thinking Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. (reproduction of painting)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1enxUm0O8Ks3WfvXZBkILfGg401sKbTRl/view
2019 Jason Andrew, Appalachia Now!: An Interdisciplinary Survey of Contemporary Art in Southern Appalachia, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC. 58pgs.
2019 Marc Ethan Mitchell, Decoy: Tauba Auerbach, Trudy Benson, Tara Donovan, Corin Hewitt, & Jered Sprecher, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 16pgs.
2018 Amos Oakes, “Friday Artisans featuring Jered Sprecher”, Community Television of Knoxville, https://vimeo.com/257751971
2017 Munro Galloway & Youna Kwak ed., Four Years, Uncorrected Proofs, Redlands, CA, 120 pgs.
2017 Artist to Artist, Vol. 2, Sharpe-Walentas Foundation, New York, NY, 480pgs
2017 Stephen Wicks & Jered Sprecher, Jered Sprecher: Outside In, The Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, 48pgs.
2017 Paul Harrill & Jered Sprecher, Jered Sprecher: Outside In, video 9 minutes 33 secs., Documentary video filmed and edited by Paul Harrill.
2015 Michael Wilson, Memory Device: Jered Sprecher, Open Studio Press, 48pgs.
2014 Bill Donovan, Stacking Stones, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA. Published by ISSUU, 28 pgs.
2012 Scott Anderson, Jered Sprecher: Fraktur, Times Club/Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA 2011 Jon Lutz, Working Title, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY
2007 Luis Camnitzer, et al., Non-Declarative: Drawing Papers: Vol. 71, Sept. 2007 2007 Chris Molinski, Jered Sprecher, & Wendy White, Jered Sprecher: Truth in Tension, The Art Gallery of Knoxville, Knoxville, TN

Press (select)

2022 Molly Boarati, New American Paintings: Open Studios Press, Issue 154, January. 2019 “Nashville Sound Design”, Elle Décor (Italia), June, p. 105 (image of painting).
2019 2019 Amy Beth Wright, “Artists of Appalachia Push Back on Regional Stereotypes”,
Artsy.net, November 22.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-appalachia-push-regional-stereotypes 2018 Vittorio Colaizzi, “On Formal Noodling: Invention and Determination in Recent
Abstract Painting”, ASAP Journal, John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, MD, pp. 67-96, January.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/686303
2018 Rachel Bubis, “The Focus: Interview Jered Sprecher”, Locate Arts, Nashville, TN, March 31. https://locatearts.org/the-focus/2018/interview-jered-sprecher
2018 Blair Schulman, “Anxious Abstraction at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art”,
WhiteHot Magazine, New York/Los Angeles, May 1. https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/at-nerman-museum-contemporary-art/3949 2017 Coury Turczyn, “Jered Sprecher: The Untortured Artist”, Knoxville Mercury, Jan. 25. 2017 Amy McCrary, “Artistic Reflections: ‘Outside In’ at KMA shows artist’s works”,
Knoxville News Sentintel, January 21.
2016 Jered Sprecher, “Maker’s Mark: A Plane is a Pocket in the Corners of the Mind”,
thefinch.net, December 10.
2016 “Artist of the Week: Jered Sprecher”, LVL3, Chicago, IL, March 16.
2015 Budd Dees, “Jered Sprecher: The Hollow That Echoes at Gallery Protocol”, Art Papers, Atlanta, GA, July/August.
2015 Lily Kuonen, “Resonance and Abstraction: Jered Sprecher”, Burnaway, May 14. 2015 A. Will Brown, “Fan Mail: Jered Sprecher”, Daily Serving, May 15.
2014 Rob Colvin, In Survey of Southern Art, Place is the Space, Hyperallergic, Sept. 5. 2014 Sharon Butler, “Casualist Tendency”, Two Coats of Paint, February 18.
2014 Bill Donovan,” Jered Sprecher’s Work/l/d”, Beautiful Decay, May.
2014 Cate McQuaid, “Shows that paint outside the lines, and one that sticks to the script”,
Boston Globe, April 12.
2014 Stephen B. MacInnis, “Have you met…Jered Sprecher?”, May 29.
2014 John Steppling, “The Unserious”, http://john-steppling.com/the-unserious/ Dec. 26. 2014 Emily Wilkerson, “Extract, Abstract: Jered Sprecher at Staple Goods”, Pelican Bomb,
New Orleans, June 30.
2014 Orien Wertz, “Chattanooga’s Hunter Invitational Focuses on Eight From the Region”,
Burnaway, September 16.
2013 Sharon Butler, Jered Sprecher: The Liar’s Paradox, Two Coats of Paint 2013 Valerie Brennan, Studio Critical, March 5, 2013.
2013 Brian Fee, “Pattern Recognition: Jered Sprecher at Jeff Bailey”, New American Paintings Blog
2013 Bill Donovan, “Jered Sprecher Always Lies” Beautiful Decay
2013 Asun Perez, Explora los Lugares, Narraciones, Distanciamientos y Cuestionamientos
del Espai d’Art Contemporani, NoMePierdoNiUna, December 21. 2013 Jillian Steinhauer, “Art X”, Hyperallergic Blog, February 12, 2013.
2013 Amy Skinner, Guggenheim Foundation Blog, “All the worlds a…studio”, Nov. 5. http://www.guggfellowsblog.org/
2013 Rob Weiner, Chinati Foundation, Newsletter, Vol. 18. Pgs 90-2, 97.
2011 Evan J. Garza, “Artist Spotlight”, New American Paintings, Open Studios Press, No. 94, June 2011. (pp 8-12)
2011 Cate McQuaid, “Suffused with energy at odds with abstraction”, Boston Globe, September 28, 2011.
2011 Kenneth Baker, “Sprecher at 16”, The San Francisco Chronicle. July 30, 2011.
2011 Sharon Butler, “Abstract Painting: The New Casualists”, The Brooklyn Rail, June 2011.
2010 Ezrha Jean Black, “Jered Sprecher at Kinkead Contemporary”, Artillery,
March/April, Vol. 4, Issue 4.
2009 Wayne Adams, “The Problems of Painting”, IMAGE, Vol. 60
2007 R.C. Baker, “Non-Declarative at the Drawing Center”, The Village Voice, Oct 8

Bibliography (select)

2017 Fred Wilson, Amy Elias, Jered Sprecher, “Object and Identities: An Interview with Fred Wilson”, ASAP Journal, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, vol. 1, no. 1, January, 1, 3-28pgs.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/649693/pdf

Gallery Representation
Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA, whitespace gallery, Atlanta, GA

Lectures + Visiting Artist+ Workshops (select)

2021 Visiting Artist, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
2021 Visiting Artist, University of the South, Sewanee, TN
2019 Visiting Artist, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
2018 Artist Lecture, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
2017 Visiting Artist, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
2016 Visiting Artist, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Visiting Artist, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
Visiting Artist, University of Akron, Akron, OH
2015 Visiting Artist, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Visiting Artist, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
2014 Visiting Artist, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN
Lecture, Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, TN.
2013 Lecture, Chinati Foundation & Marfa Book Company, Marfa, TX
Visiting Artist, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Visiting Artist, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2012 Visiting Artist, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Visiting Artist, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN
Visiting Artist, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2011 Visiting Artist, Ox Bow Artist Residency, Saguatauk, MI

Academic Positions

PROFESSOR, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 2016 – present ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 2011 – 2016 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 2005 – 2011 VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, spring 2005 LECTURER, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, fall 2004
ADJUNCT ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 2002 – 03