Gretchen Durst Jacobs
Drawing, Painting, Printmaking
Gretchen Durst Jacobs was born in Dayton, Ohio. She holds degrees in painting from Wright State University in Dayton, OH (BFA, 2000) and The University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH (MFA, 2008). In 2000 and 2001, she attended The New York Studio School, Drawing and Painting Marathons. She received a Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District, Individual Artist Grant in 2023. Her work has been the subject of 9 solo exhibitions. She has shown extensively in Ohio, the US and Canada venues including Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (2023), The Lambton Heritage Museum, Ontario, Canada (2022) The Dana Wiley Gallery, Dayton, OH (2021), The University of Cincinnati (2018), Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, (2020) Zea Mays, Florence, MA (2019) Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, OH (2019) Alten Feuerwache Loschwitz, Grafikwerkstatt, Dresden, Germany (2018), Dayton/Kyoto Print Exchange, (2016, 2018, 2020, 2023), Ohio Northern University (2010). You can see her public art installed at The Dayton Metro Library (completed in 2017) and the Kettering Government Center (completed 2015). She is represented by The Dana Wiley Gallery, Dayton, Ohio.
I create non-objective paintings informed by the scale of my body; most of my paintings are near my height and reach from fingertip to fingertip. I am fascinated by the qualities of color, movement, rhythm, and space. I work with themes such as the natural world, climate change, and feminist ideas. A limited and carefully considered color palette references the body/nature, psychological interior and power. Muscle memory informs my mark-making, aligning my perception and thoughts. Paint is applied intuitively and is expressive and tender, and in this, I embody the landscape.
A carefully designed grid is at the heart of each new painting. The grid forms a hard and soft boundary for the work and creates a mutable tension between the geometry and the interweaving large gesture. This pictorial dichotomy references the relational dualism at work in our modern lives and our environment.
The dominant canon of abstract painting has long been associated with masculinity, and so I reclaim this process as I wonder, what is feminine abstract painting? As a woman it is what I know. By utilizing all of my faculties, body and mind, I can best observe my subject of consequence—my enduring and sacred relationship with the natural world and its essential place in my life and work.
Gold Rush
42"x50"
acrylic on paper mounted to panel