Artist Features

Jess Perlitz

Photograph of large white sculpture reminiscent of face in a warehouse

Perlitz, Jess. Barely There, 2017. 2018 Individual Artist Fellow and Joan Shipley Award recipient, Oregon Arts Commission.

Originally published February, 2018

“I am equally interested in how artwork can be used and occupied as I am in the pageantry of participation.” -Jess Perlitz

Jess Perlitz makes work that considers landscape and the ways in which we define it and seek to recognize ourselves within it. Her projects take the form of performance, sculpture and drawing, and have appeared in a variety of sites, from playgrounds and fields to galleries and museums, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, PA; Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY; Cambridge Galleries in Ontario, Canada; De Fabriek in the Netherlands; and a boat that serves as the home of the Arctic Circle Residency. She was recently an artist in residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and at the Vermont Studio Center. Her project Chorus is currently installed at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, as part of the historical site’s ongoing artist installation series.

Perlitz is a graduate of Bard College. She received her MFA from Tyler School of Art and clown training from the Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance. Perlitz is an assistant professor of art and studio head of sculpture at Lewis & Clark College.

Courtesy of the Oregon Arts Commission.

Artist Credit: Jess Perlitz