Jennifer Mannebach creates singular pieces but takes great pleasure in creating site-specific installations, such as the large scale one exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center entitled Pantheon Wave. Mannebach’s work has been represented by Flatfile Gallery in Chicago. She has exhibited at the HPAC ‘In the Loop’ Gallery, the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and other mid-west galleries and universities. Recently, she participated in a collaborative drawing show in Lucerne, Switzerland which randomly paired Chicago artists with Swiss artists. In 2006 she spent 2 weeks as a visiting artist at The American Academy in Rome. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she subsequently taught for 6 years. She is currently an art facilitator at Little City Foundation’s studio and media arts programs. In 2009 she was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship. Other awards include: CAAP grants, IAC special assistance grants, and the Governor’s International Arts Exchange Grant.

I have a curiosity about impotent (or leftover) faith, places where things collect, suspension of disbelief and the capricious nature of personal belief systems.
In addition to Roman architecture, my visual sources include films that correspond to the above thought process. I re-view these films, looking for what I think of as a tectonic moment and photograph it. The photograph becomes a source for the resulting piece made of masking tape and powdered graphite. The ‘lines’ that make up the drawings are simply where the graphite drifts into the space between the cut and torn tape. Although this body of work began with photographs of iconic religious architecture, re-visiting these films over time becomes a pilgrimage to a different sort of site.
Recently I have been taking photographs of people in slightly awkward looking social situations. I have been combining these references with chaotic imagery that hints at a natural disaster, exploring the shifting ground of casual moments between people.
I’m inspired by situations that highlight the intersection between comfort, privacy and embarrassment – responses that are out of our control based on history that always remains as a trace.