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On Making Objects:

“I do think it's almost always true that a poem begins when two things, perhaps an inner thing and an outer thing which hadn't been together before, suddenly converge and feel as if they wanted to make something new.”

Richard Wilbur

In my work, everyday objects from the simplest and most overlooked places reference basic human nature and anatomy. Years of collected newspapers, photos, kitchen tables and chairs, outboard propellers, and baby shoes, all bound to be discarded or at the very least dismissed, leverage the “something new.”
 
Starting these conversations in the vernacular, engages what one already knows, juxtaposes and constructs. It is a common commentary that the constancy of objects, which endure in our memories, is change.

I am most interested in observing the changes.

Catherine Jacobi

 “Catherine Jacobi’s [work] is a breath of fresh air; a well-received Sunday afternoon reading poetry, an evening at the museum visiting familiar pieces you have had a yearning to see.

The objects that dominate Jacobi’s work evoke the long-lasting memories that we have embedded in them. They remind us of the constancy of objects as anecdotal registries. The sculptural qualities of the work, much like Rauschenberg’s, confront the audience as objects in the world. Stylistically, the use of everyday objects parallels Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ — prioritising ideas over the visual example and expressing subjects of times past and the passing of time so inherent in our human existence, whether internally or externally with the world around us.

But Jacobi is not interested in any nostalgic notions of the past. She is interested in inciting viewers to think about their stories critically moving forward and to allow themselves to contemplate in the present.”

Saatchi Gallery Magazine’s Elliot Leiva wrote in 2019 of Jacobi's exhibition, Things of This World

Biography

Education 

Residence
Chicago, Illinois

1987

Master of Fine Arts, Sculpture
Cranbrook Academy of Art

1985

Bachelor of fine Arts, Sculpture
Drake University, Des Moines, IA

2000

The Basic Program
University of Chicago

2010

Asian Classic Program
University of Chicago

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2020-22

The Window Projects
Robin Richman/Chicago

2019

Nothing But Time
with Juan Manuel Fernandez
Northeastern Illinois University/Chicago

2018

Things of This World
Aron Packer Projects at Chicago Gallery News/Chicago

2015

The Last Hurrah
Packer Schopf Gallery/Chicago

2013

Context Art Miami
Represented by Packer Schopf Gallery

2012

Collective Bargaining
Packer Schopf Gallery/Chicago

2011

MDW Art Fair, Chicago
Represented by Packer Schopf Gallery

2010

Gleaners, Hawkers and Reapers
Packer Schopf Gallery/Chicago

2009

All That Remains
Packer Schopf Gallery/Chicago

2007

This is My Body: work in progress
MN Gallery/Chicago

2006

Her Tongue: corporal and textual examinations
International Museum of Surgical Science/Chicago

2024

Power of Place: 35 Years of Chicago Printmakers Collaborative
Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

Existing is Political
CSI Project Space/Chicago

2020

Where’s the Revolution
Bridgeport Art Center

2018

Steamroller Prints at Publishers Fair
Chicago Printers Guild/Chicago

2018

Eco-Art
The Art Center Highland Park, Highland Park, IL

2017

Nasty Women Art
1100 Florence/Evanston, IL

2014

Rolled, Stoned & Inked:
25 years of the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative

DCASE Exhibitions, Expo 72, Chicago

2011

Guerilla Truck Show
Morlen Sinoway Atelier/ Chicago

2011

Walk in the Park
Burnham Hotel/ Hotel Palomar/Chicago
Benefitting the Trust for Public Land

2010

Art Loop Open
Block 37/Chicago
"Forgetting" awarded the 3Arts Prize

2007

The Artists Project
Chicago Merchandise Mart/Chicago

1990

The Chicago Show
City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs/ The Art Institute of Chicago/ Museum of Contemporary Art
The Chicago Public Library Cultural Center

Contact Me

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