Interested in repetitions in nature, in works of art as well as in human behavior, American artist Jennifer Nocon reflects on the deeper meaning of her creations: “A plant may develop thorns over time in order to protect itself,” she explains. “People do the same thing. Kindness, hostility, generosity, warmth, coldness, hardness: These tendencies harden into patterns and ultimately determine character….Once I am conscious of the basic principles of construction, whether it’s an object or my own current state of mind,” she says, “I am free to make all kinds of deviations with the high hope of opening myself, and my work, up to unlimited possibility.”
Nocon works in sculpture, particularly handmade felt, and in drawings and watercolor. The art in the U. S. Embassy in Islamabad—the watercolors and the felt, ceramic, and steel sculpture— depict patterns that have emerged from the visual dialogue in which Nocon engages with the natural world.
Nocon was born in 1970 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (1995) and a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Southern California, Los Angeles (2003).
