About
CONTACT
jean@jeanseestadt.com
ARTIST STATEMENT
Power objects” are art objects used in spiritual and religious practices to connect people to higher powers at crucial life moments. For me, the greatest power objects are textiles. From birth to death, used to soothe and protect, touched every day or once in a lifetime, fabrics are among the most powerful materials humans have created.
I use textiles to study banal, generic spaces: security lines and medical waiting rooms with fish tanks, daytime TV, and drab seating. There is a logic to these spaces – they are bright! they are airy! — that intentionally hides what they do. These spaces hold and manage people during their most vulnerable life moments; moments when they might employ textiles to manage parting, returning, pain, and healing.
I am interested both in the bittersweet and tedious moments of everyday living, as well as the things we hold close during life's biggest moments.
CV
Born in Minneapolis, MN 1984
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
EDUCATION
Hunter College, New York NY
Master of Fine Arts, December 2013
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
Bachelor of Fine Arts, May 2007
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 SYNT Spring Flat Files, Visionary Projects, New York, NY
2019 “Every Woman Biennial”, Bowery Gallery, New York, NY
2017 “Respect”, (Juried exhibition curated by Openings Collective),
Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, New York, NY
2017 “Nasty Women”, Knockdown Center, Queens, NY
2016 “Wild Seeds”, Temporary Agency, Brooklyn, NY
2015 “If You Leave Can I Come Too?”, Hunter East Harlem Gallery,
New York, NY
2015 “DEEP END”, Wassaic Projects, Wassaic, NY
2015 “2015 Season Kickoff Party & Drawing Show”, Sadie Halie Projects,
Brooklyn, NY
2015 “RESPOND”, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2014 “Artists for Ferguson”, Temporary Agency, Brooklyn, NY
2014 “So Small”, The Lincoln Gallery, Eugene, OR
2013 “WordSmiths”, online exhibition
2013 The Bailey House, New York, NY
2013 “Kreft Juried Exhibition”, Ann Arbor, MI
2013 "Beats & Brushstrokes", ELAN, Seattle, WA
2012 “Dead In August”, Present Company, Brooklyn, NY 2010 “Art
For Haiti”, Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York, NY
2010 “Foot In the Door” Minneapolis Art Institute, Minneapolis, MN
2010 “Midnight Snacks””, ArtSlant, Chicago, IL
2009 “Textiles”, The Loft, Brooklyn, NY
2008 “This Is Not the Oxford Open”, Jam Factory, Oxford, UK
2006 “Reflections”, Mercury Café and Gallery, Chicago, IL.
RESIDENCIES
2025 Kinhouse Cohort, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Carter Burden, New York, NY
2014 Wassaic Residency, Wassaic, NY
2014 Ground Work, Falls Village, CT
LECTURES/VISITING ARTIST/DISCUSSIONS
2015 NYC Creative Salon, New York, NY
2015 Hunter College, School of Social Work, New York, NY
2015 Carter Burden, New York, NY
2014 Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
2013 Hunter College, New York, NY
PUBLICATIONS
2019 ‘Artist Profile’, Ginger Zine, Issue #15
2015 ‘Art that Acknowledges Death Without Showing the Body’, Hyperallergic,
December 29th.
2015 ‘‘If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?’ A show Whose Subject Is Death’,
The New York Times, December 24th.
2015 ‘A Gallery Grows In Harlem’, New York Press, November 3rd.
2015 ‘‘Hunter East Harlem Gallery at Hunter College to Open ‘If You Leave Me
Can I Come Too?’, Broadway World, October 14th .
2015 ‘After a Call for Change, Artists Respond’, Hyperallergic,
February 13th.
2013 ‘Hunter MFA’, What People Call Art, December 15th.
2012 ‘2012 Brooklyn Street Art Images Of The Year’, Brooklyn Street Art,
December 19th.
2012 ‘Interview With Danielle Walter’, Quickest Flip, Issue 2 2012
‘Featured Artist’, site95 Journal Volume 1 Issue 08, April 2nd. 2012
‘Paper Trail’ Quiet Lunch Issue 4, May 31st.
2012 ‘Street Art, Bomb Scares And Times Of Anxiety’, Brooklyn Street Art,
May 23rd.
2012 ‘Jean Seestadt’, Hashed and Salted, March 15th.
2012 ‘Street Art’, Slow Painting, March 7th.
2012 ‘Artist Jean Seestadt Plants A Package In A Bus Stop’
Brooklyn Street Art, February 29th.Brooklyn Street Art 2/29
2012 ‘A Mushroom Cloud in Manhattan: If You See Somethin’...’, Huffington Post
February 28th.
2012 ‘Participatory Installation at the Candy Rush’, I Love Franklin Ave, 2/25