profile

After 25 years combining a law practice in Auckland City with raising three children, Jenny is now working full-time as a cast glass artist from her studio in Auckland.

The fundamental idea in Jenny’s work is to cast patterns abstracted from nature into glass, to convey a sense of timeless strength.

In her series "Silk Road: Patterns of Time", textures, folds and colours of silk are translated into glass to evoke the textures and patterns of our environment, and to convey the timeless nature of these ever-recurring patterns and their sense of inevitability.

Jenny’s "Totem Towers" are tall sculptures suitable for indoors and outdoors in which iconic patterns evocative of our landscape are cast into glass, conveying a sense of history and a sense of place.

Her "Strata: Levels of Time" was developed to reflect the layers of our landscape, the layers of our history and of our society.

In Jenny’s "Landscape" series, texture and form combine to convey the ruggedness and drama of New Zealand’s landscape and seascape.

Her "Spirit Stones" echo patterns of our landscape, with an ethereal quality hinting at the spirits of our ancestors.

Jenny has exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, the USA, the UK, and France. Her galleries have taken her works to SOFA Chicago, Palm Beach Florida, Art London, and ICFF New York. She has twice been a finalist in the prestigious Australian Ranamok Glass Prize, and has twice won People’s Choice Prize at NZ Glass Society Members’ Exhibitions. In 2006 she was selected from glass artists worldwide by a British curator for a book titled "50 Distinguished Contemporary Artists in Glass". In 2007 she was selected as one of ten New Zealand glass artists to exhibit along with finalists of the international Bombay Sapphire Glass Prize. In 2009, Jenny was selected as one of New Zealand’s key glass artists to exhibit in a touring exhibition "Looking Glass: reflecting ideas".


awards
Jul 2007 Finalist in Ranamok Glass prize
Mar 2006 People's Choice award, NZSAG Members' Exhibition, Auckland
Jul 2005 Finalist in Ranamok Glass prize
Sep 2004 Honourable mention, 'Blown away - new forms in glass', juried online exhibition, www.postpicasso.com
Jan 2004 People's Choice award, NZSAG Members' Exhibition, Wanganui


public commissions
Apr 2007 Mayor of Auckland's Community Safety Awards 2007


publications
Dec 2009 Looking Glass: reflecting ideas, 2009 catalogue
Dec 2008 NZ House and Garden
Oct 2008 NZ Lawyer
Aug 2007 Ranamok Glass Prize catalogue
Late 2006 '50 Distinguished Contemporary Artists in Glass', IL Publishers, London
Feb 2006 National Business Review, 10/2/06. Critics' Choice column. Material Matters Exhibition
Sep 2005 Canberra Times, 5 September, p8, Ranamok Glass Prize
Aug 2005 Ranamok Glass Prize catalogue
May 2005 Video on selected New Zealand glass artists, presented at GAS conference, Adelaide, South Australia
Sep 2004 Juror's statement. 'Blown away - new forms in glass', juried online exhibition
Feb 2004 NZ Herald 25/2/04, pB7. Art Guide. Translucence Exhibition


recent selected exhibitions
2010 Shapeshifter 2010, Lower Hutt Civic Gardens
2009 Looking Glass: reflecting ideas, Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui and touring
  Sculpture on the Hong Kong Sea, Hong Kong
  The Molly Morpeth Canaday 3D wards, Whakatane
  Encore 09, Glass Artists’ Gallery, Sydney
  Sealink Small Sculpture Prize, Waiheke Community Gallery, Waiheke
2008 NZ Sculpture on Shore, Fort Takapuna, Auckland
  Arcytype, Glass Artists’ Gallery, Sydney
  Shapeshifter 2008, Civic Gardens and The New Dowse, Lower Hutt
2007 Bombay Sapphire Blue Room, Auckland and Wellington
  Ranamok Glass Prize Exhibition, touring Australia Aug 07 to Jul 08
  New Glass: Totem Towers, solo exhibition, Milford Galleries Queenstown

contacts
jenny smith
tel. +64 9 378 6304
mob. +64 27 248 4340
email jenny

click to enlarge Silk Road: Patterns of Time Series by Jenny Smith
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click to enlarge Totem Tower series by Jenny Smith
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click to enlarge Strata: Levels of Time series by Jenny Smith
click to enlarge Landscape series by Jenny Smith
click to enlarge Spirit Stones series by Jenny Smith
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click images to enlarge