Jeni Snell
Laura I Gallery is delighted to showcase the work of British London-based multi-disciplinary visual artist Jeni Snell. Jeni (born 1972) uses drawing, photography, painting, sculpture, installation and digital art processes to explore the impact that our early environment has upon the formation of personal identity. Similar to Belgian Artist Luc Tuymans where World War 11 is a recurring theme used to explore people’s relationships with history, Jeni’s 2 & 3D work, uses her early experience of attending a school built on top of a redundant WW11 German gun battery - which brought the opposing dynamics of ‘childhood innocence’ and ‘architecture of war’ together within the playground - as both the catalyst for becoming an Artist, and the model for the coexistence of the formal and conceptual oppositions within her work.
Jeni, who was born in Guernsey, creates artworks that celebrate diversity, personal empowerment, and equality by using allegory and metaphor to undermine oppression and control mechanisms. Bunkers or projectile weaponry – both being symbols of soldiery - are playfully combined within a mocking narrative of resistance with the innocent, seemingly-inconsequential, or banal; such as oversized advertise hoarding models of ice-creams and ice-lollies, or saccharinely sweet kitsch and camp ceramic ornaments - everyday objects, used in a similar way that American Artist Jeff Koons re-contextualized proletarian luxury (thus playing with the distinction between low and high art).
Jeni was born in Guernsey, the second largest of the Channel Isles, and the only British territory to be occupied by Nazi Germany during WW11 - resulting in the Islands being heavily fortified. Following the end of the war in 1945 these monumental Brutalist installations were quickly de-militarized resulting in a scarred landscape. In the 1970’s one such site was utilized as foundations for La Houguette Primary School which Jeni attended from age 5 to 12. It is clear that the physical contact achieved from playing in and amongst these redundant forts developed an emotional connection with form and material, so it’s hardly surprising that Jeni first and foremost identifies with being a sculptor and states her 2D work of painting and digital art is executed with 3D considerations.
Jeni regards her three most memorable art achievements to date as gaining the Central Saint Martins 2008 ‘Artist and Collectors Bursary’ (whilst undertaking her MA in Fine Art with Art Theory) which is awarded to one student from each of the six Universities of the Arts London, spearheaded by Kay Saatchi. Jeni spent the whole award of £3,000.00 on making an audience-interactive installation, ‘FORTRESS’, an inflatable bunker which consolidated her childhood experience and contributed to the debate of ‘play as a political gesture’. ‘FORTRESS’ was included in ANTICIPATION – An exhibition of London’s Best Emerging Artists in 2008. The show was the culmination of a years’ curatorial work by Kay Saatchi and Catriona Warren, who visited 250 studios and graduate art shows choosing 21 artists from Camberwell, CSM, Chelsea, Goldsmiths, City and Guilds, London Collage of Communication, Royal Academy Schools, Royal Collage of Art and Sculpture, Slade and Wimbledon.
Nationality
British, born Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK. Lives and works in London. Education MA Fine Art with Art Theory at the University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, 2007. BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class),The School of Art, Design, Media & Culture, University of Sunderland, UK, 1995-99. Awards include University of the Arts London- Artist Exchange and Collectors Bursary (2006), The Juliet Gomperts Trust Project Grant (2006), The Oppenheim- John Downes Memorial Trust Award (2005), The Arts Council of England- Grant for Individuals (2003 and 2002), The Princes Trust- Arts & Business Grant (2001) and Northern Arts- Materials & Equipment Grant (2000) |
Laura I Gallery Globalisation – Exploring the I and You in an Era of Change 25 October – 28 November 2021.
Art Toronto Art Fair Canada, OCAD University Canada & UAL (University of the Arts London) collaboration, Radiance: an exhibition showcasing alumni 29 October – 7 November 2021.
Selected solo and two-person art exhibitions include
The Greenhouse Gallery, Guernsey Museum, Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK. Achtung Baby! Jeni Snell - Painting, Collage and Sculpture. 24 January - 17 March 2019.
Sartorial Contemporary Art, Kings Cross, London, UK. 30 October- 20 November 2009. Anka Dabrowska and Jeni Snell –
Concrete Jungle.
Coach House Gallery, Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK. 12 July- 7 August 2009 COAST Jeni Snell - new paintings.
The Delfina Foundation, London, UK. 11- 22 November 2008 Playground-Battlefield, Jeni Snell - Mirus Delfina, visitor-interactive installation. 13 November 2008 Public talk - Jeni Snell in conversation with Prof. Barry Curtis.
Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London, UK. 6- 21 August 2004 Places I Have Lived - Jeni Snell, New work- drawing on board.
Selected group exhibitions include
Archive Gallery, Haggerston, London. Queer Art Now 13- 22 March 2020.
The Silver Building, Royal Docks, London. CITYISLAND Anka Dabrowska, Jeni Snell, Stav B. Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Installation, Photography and Performance. 13- 20 June, 2019.
Payneshurvell Gallery, 16 Hewett Street, London. 10 June- 24 July 2010. A Bright and Guilty Place.
Sartorial Contemporary Art, Kings Cross, London, UK. 26 November- 17 December 2009. URBANART - Panik, Cyclops, James Jessop, Rowdy, Sweet Toof and Jeni Snell - Fortress Sartorial Graffiti Event.
Elevator Gallery, Hackney Wick, London, UK. 17 April- 3 May 2009 No Mans Land.
Orleans House Gallery, London, UK. April- June 2002 The Foundation for Women’s Art, Art, Age & Gender.
Art Fairs
London Art Fair, Contemporary Art Projects, London, UK.
13- 18 January 2009.
Santander Art Fair, Santander, Spain. July 2008 Jeni Snell - new work represented by Galeria Fruela.
Reviews
https://www.artlyst.com/features/artist-artist-interview-guernsey-born-jeni-snell-anka-dabrowska/
Sometimes
Jeni Snell
Sometimes
Oil, acrylic, and house paint on canvas
97 x 97 cm
Medium
Painting
Condition
New.
Signature
Hand-signed by artist
Certificate of authenticity
Included
Frame
Not Included
Hideaway
Jeni Snell
Hideaway
Oil, acrylic and household paint on canvas. 100 x 100 cm
"This four-storey concrete coastal observation tower was a built upon, and disguised as, a Martello tower from the Napoleonic Wars. This strengthening adaptation of existing forts, and approach to camouflage, is typical of the German fortification of the Channel Islands during 1940-45. I passed this huge imposing structure twice a day on the school bus.
My use of ceramic ornaments has been inspired by my childhood intrigue of my Nana’s ‘displayed’ collectables. My placing of ceramics in juxtaposition with redundant architecture of war (from my childhood playground) further undermines it’s intended wartime purpose, and metaphorically oppression in general. I am interested in the similarities; man-made artificiality: material-mixed, poured and cast fabrication as well as their contrasts; fragility vs strength, tiny vs colossal, smooth vs coarse, shiny vs dull, colourful vs colourless, ornamentation – to collect and display (keep) vs defence – to be hidden and kill (take away)".
Year
2017
Classification
Unique
Medium
Painting
Signature
Hand-signed by artist
Certificate of authenticity
Included
La Dolorosa
Jeni Snell
La Dolorosa
Oil, acrylic and household paint on canvas. 97 x 97cm
"Draped kitsch artificial foliage adorns this Brutalist German WW11 bunker as it floats idly within a sea of rock candy pink and white stripes (stick of rock). I grew up calling this bunker ‘The Bus Tower’ because this is what my Dad has always called it due to it’s resemblance to a 1950’s yellow American school bus. So in my childhood imagination a huge concrete school bus was parked precariously at the cliff edge over-looking the sea at ‘the top of Pleinmont’ (to coin the exact phrase)".
Year
2017
Classification
Unique
Medium
Painting
Signature
Hand-signed by artist
Certificate of authenticity
Included
Screaming
Jeni Snell
Screaming
Oil, acrylic and household paint on canvas. 97 x 97 cm
"The placing of the kitsch shiny animal ornaments (artificially cast, like the bunkers) on top of the still-foreboding monotone-grey concrete-carcass highlights the often absurdity and unsuccessful attempts of WW11 camouflage techniques. The viewer can practically hear the continuous “hee-haw! hee-haw!” acting like a beacon warning passers-by to still keep away whilst playfully undermining their past-life killing potential".
Year
2017
Classification
Unique
Medium
Painting
Signature
Hand-signed by artist
Certificate of authenticity
Included
Achtung Baby!
Jeni Snell
Achtung Baby!
Installation of 64 sculptures. Cast-concrete, Montana Gold spray paint.
Year: 2018
"Achtung Baby! is an ongoing project of building a Queer Army marching tall and proud in defiance of homophobia, transphobia and discrimination towards gender-nonconforming people. Discrimination
(including racism and misogyny) is sadly on the rise again with growing far-right propaganda which threatens to undermine the LGBTQ+ forward trajectory towards equality.
Conceptually – this ‘ironic army’ is actually a protest - a Pride Parade, which is increasing in numbers and strength each time I cast and complete another sculpture - representing the fight against injustice gathering momentum. Why budgies? It was common for my grandparents’ generation to keep budgies in cages. My Uncle Roy also bred them and I have fond childhood memories of these beautiful birds. Fortunately the practice of keeping caged birds has moved on providing further analogy in support of freedom and flight – the importance of no restrictions to high goals and self-esteem".
Certificate of authenticity included
Sexuality
Jeni Snell
Sexuality
Oil, acrylic and household paint on canvas. 97 x 97cm
"A playfully over-sized and kitsch ceramic doe stands in the foreground of a surreal imaginary landscape which floats like molten mercury upon a silver sea. We, the viewer, meet her innocent gaze before we notice her two fawns lying camouflaged at her front hooves. The still-foreboding presence of the brutalist form of an eroding German bunker towers above, behind this family trio to somewhat overshadow an otherwise quintessentially saccharine scene.
My use of ceramic ornaments has been inspired by my childhood intrigue of my Nana’s ‘displayed’ collectables. My placing of ceramics with redundant architecture of war (from my childhood playground) further undermines it’s intended wartime purpose, and metaphorically oppression in general. I am interested in the similarities; man-made artificiality: material-mixed, poured and cast fabrication as well as their contrasts; fragility v strength, tiny v colossal, smooth v coarse, shiny v dull, colourful v colourless, ornamentation – to collect and display (keep) v defence – to be hidden and kill (take away).
I have combined various painting mediums, processes, techniques and finishes because I like to both enhance and disrupt the visual dialogue and painterly narrative that occurs between the compositional elements and our subconscious."
Year
2017 - 2019
Classification
Unique
Medium
Painting
Signature
Hand-signed by artist
Certificate of authenticity
Included
Why
Jeni Snell
Why
Oil, acrylic and household paint on canvas.
100 x 100 cm
Year
2017
Classification
Unique
Medium
Painting
Signature
Hand-signed by artist
Certificate of authenticity
Included
Untitled (Ice-cream for Stephen Merchant - if Stephen was an ice-cream I envisage this is the ice-cream he’d be - 4 scoop yellow waffle cone with concrete flake)
Plaster of Paris pigmented plaster of Paris, aluminum rod, concrete, found-object: concrete segment found on day-trip to Margate, waffle cone cast from street finds plastic sheet with embossed intersecting diagonal lines found in St. George's Square, Pimlico 370mm x 100mm, 2021.
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Untitled (blueberry one-scoop waffle cone with rawl plug flake)
'Untitled (blueberry one-scoop waffle cone with Rawl plug flake)’, pigmented plaster of Paris, aluminum rod, found-object: raw plug and circular timber cut-out from building site, waffle cone cast from street find the plastic sheet with embossed intersecting diagonal lines found in St. George's Square, Pimlico 220mm x 90mm x 50mm, 2022.
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Untitled (Four scoops cherry asbestos waffle)
Untitled (Four scoops cherry asbestos waffle), cast concrete, pigmented plaster of Paris, found objects: asbestos triangle (found on Peacehaven beach), circular cut-out timber (found on building site in SW London), waffle cone cast from cone-rolled leftover re-purposed embossed wallpaper, Pimlico, 25 x 9 x 9 cm, 2021.
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Untitled (Fluorescent one-scoop waffle cone with tough glass)
'Untitled (Fluorescent one-scoop waffle cone with tough glass)’, concrete, plaster of Paris, aluminum rod, fluorescent spray paint, found-object: Georgian wired glass fragment - found on the Thames foreshore at Millbank, waffle cone cast from street find: plastic sheet with embossed intersecting diagonal lines found in St. George's Square, Pimlico, 220mm x 90mm x 50mm, 2021.
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Untitled (Covid-19 Ice-cream)
'Untitled (Covid-19 Ice-cream)’, plaster of Paris, Flow lateral test is cast from Artist’s used test kit, waffle cone cast from street find plastic sheet with embossed intersecting diagonal lines found in St. George's Square, Pimlico 270mm x 100mm x 100mm, 2021.
"I made this piece in response to thousands of people flocking to the Dorset coast last summer to get onto Bournemouth beach during the Covid-19 Epidemic".
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Untitled (Chocolate one-scoop waffle cone ice-cream with clay pipe stem)
'Untitled (Chocolate one-scoop waffle cone ice-cream with clay pipe stem)’, pigmented plaster of Paris, found-object: stem of a clay pipe (from the foreshore at Millbank, London), circular cut-out timber (found on building site in SW London), re-purposed wooden float spike, 170mm x 60mm x 60mm, 2022.
"Also incorporates a tiny bit of local London social history – another clay pipe stem found whilst mudlarking on the Thames foreshore in front of Tate Britain, re-purposed to act as a 'flake". ".
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Untitled (Limpet cone)
'Untitled (Limpet cone)', cast concrete, aluminum, found objects: Limpet shell and rusted flooring brad nail (found on a day trip to Margate, on the beach), 20 x 5 x 5 cm, 2021.
“I made this work specifically with my Dad and Grandfather in mind as they were both crab pot fisherman and I have very clear memories of them collecting, then 'nailing and wiring: the Limpets to bait the pots to allure lobster, chancre and spider crab into them from the sea bed.”
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Untitled (Three-scoop mint with mint chip concrete waffle and waffle cone)
'Untitled (Three-scoop mint with mint chip concrete waffle and waffle cone)', cast concrete, pigmented plaster of Paris, found objects: concrete slice (found on road in Pimlico), green cycle path grit (found next to the repaired part of the cycle path on Grosvenor road opposite Battersea Power Station, Pimlico), circular cut-out timber (found on building site in SW London), waffle cone cast from cone-rolled leftover re-purposed embossed wallpaper, 25 x 9 x 9 cm, 2021.
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Untitled (Rainbow sprinkles 2ball screwball cone)
'Untitled (‘Rainbow sprinkles 2ball screwball cone)', cast concrete, plaster of Paris, found objects: plastic bottle found in the street in Pimlico used to make ‘ice-cream’ scoop, cone made from casting a 2ball screwball plastic container, a waffle made from concrete slice found in the street, Millbank, opposite Tate Britain, bases cast from cardboard lids, rainbow sand found in a charity shop, metal washer, 22 x 9 x 9 cm, 2021.
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Untitled (Pistachio nut cup-cone)
'Untitled (‘Pistachio nut cup-cone)', cast concrete, pigmented plaster of Paris, aluminum rod, found objects: air rifle pellets, cup-cone made from casting a plastic sweet container found in the street, Pimlico, 20 x 5 x 5 cm, 2021.
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Untitled (141 Bloc)
'Untitled (141 Bloc)', plaster of Paris, cast concrete, balsa wood, found-object: popsicle chalk packaging used to cast plaster, 17 cm x 7 cm x 22 cm, 2021.
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The Circus
'The Circus', Mixed-media sculpture – ceramic ornament, concrete, enamel paint, aluminum, Found objects: swan ornament found in a charity shop, aluminum drinks can and tube re-purposed, 26 x 6 x 4cm. 2014-16.
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Untitled (Pistachio with Flahe)
'Untitled (Pistachio with Flahe), cast concrete, pigmented plaster of Paris, aluminum rod, found objects: air riffle pellets, cup-cone made from casting a plastic sweet container found in the street, Pimlico, 20 x 5 x 5 cm, 2021.
PRICE (inc 40% commission) £400.00. *Last price for consideration £350.00.
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