Jennifer Cronin

b 1986, Oak Lawn, ILThere is always something that cannot be seen. A before and after. Something just outside, on the fringe, or even teeming just beneath the surface. Building upon the ubiquituous but often concealed psychological underpinnings inherent to suburban life, my paintings create an absurd mythology of the seemingly banal.I am certainly not alone in my upbringing as a female growing up in the suburbs, yet that aspect of my identity has remained one of the most salient and inescapable to me throughout my life. My earlier paintings vibrate with a dark anxiety with women looking for ways out, attempting to break through an invisible something as we passively watch their struggle. Like a painting, they are trapped within their own beauty, grace, and seduction.Most recently, I have been interested in the fact that my paintings are very unabashedly highly constructed images, just as our reality is construct, perhaps no more real or meaningful than the flat surfaces of the paintings themselves. Making use of it's own artifice, the paintings playfully confront the illusions and assumptions we hold about ourselves and our environment. The paintings themselves grapple with the fact that they are merely paintings. The characters w...

Education:
BFA painting, 2008, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BFA art education, 2009, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Completed study abroad at Camberwell College of Art, Spring 2009

Exhibitions:
33rd Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Chicago, IL, 2009, figurative award.
32nd Annual Plaza Art Competition, Chicago, IL, 2008, awarded best of show.
2008 BFA Exhibition, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
Painting & Sculpture: A Show About Things, Link Gallery, Champaign, IL
Community Artist Show, Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL
P.S. Painting & Sculpture, Link Gallery, Champaign, IL,