ON VIEW
April 22 – 29
+ May 12 – 20

EXHIBITION OPENINGS
Friday, April 21, 5 – 7 pm
+ Thursday, May 11, 5 – 7 pm
@jordannart
www.jordann-mckenna.com

Jordann McKenna


Jordann McKenna is a multidisciplinary artist from Ithaca, NY. She grew up near several hiking trails and waterfalls that inspired her interest in nature. After attending undergraduate school in New Paltz, NY, she knew that her love for landscapes would follow her no matter where she lived. Her work focuses on the intersections and relationship between the natural world and her own life. Using personal experience she externally processes life through painting and photography. After completing graduate school at Maine College of Art and Design and getting her MFA, she plans to continue her studio practice and teach.

Irony and Sincerity in Shadows: My practice is directly influenced by my immediate surroundings and experiences. I have always gravitated towards painting but I navigate different mediums such as analog and digital photography to explore my relationship to painting. I use painting and the lens to capture moments that embrace dualities. I am often looking for scenes that quietly reiterate and speak to what is going on in my life. In this process I’ve found that things are entirely more interwoven and complicated than I initially thought. It’s this duality that can find beauty in everyday moments. I explore feelings or experiences that are both diaristic and universal or oscillating between them. Shadows have become a fascination of mine and their presence is consistent yet always changing. They have a quiet power to imply and embrace multiplicity. They are both the absence and presence of light. Their intersections show a communication and coexistence that can be balanced or unbalanced. The ironic meeting of these dualities is conveyed in a sincere tone of beautiful shadows. Shadows on the wall of my apartment become this idealized joining of interior and exterior. At this collapsing of thresholds I imply the complicatedness of life and human relationships.

The MFA Thesis Exhibitions for the Class of 2023 are interdisciplinary shows that incorporate a range of making practices unified by the overwhelming concerns these students have for their environment, their communities, their families, and their own well-being. With an emphasis on the personal, and at times the anecdotal, these 21 artists make a variety of contributions in the form of ceramics, garments, furniture, installations, paintings, photographs, poems, prints, sculptures, and videos. The nature of their work and research demonstrates the caliber and cultural relevance of our program.











Institute of Contemporary Art
at Maine College of Art & Design
522 Congress St.Portland, ME 04101

Gallery Hours:
Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm,
Thursday, 11:00am–7:00pm