Jessica Calderwood

Previously Exhibited

Jessica Calderwood

An accomplished painter and metalsmith, Jessica Calderwood is a renowned sculptor who combines industrial processes to make timely statements about contemporary life. Calderwood uses traditional craft media -- enameling on metal, porcelain, and beads -- for their creative properties and historical references. These materials are important to her work for their visual sensuality and allusion to the labor involved in craft.

Calderwood's new body of work includes figures seeking to cover, hide or block out aspects of their environment, a moment the artist finds herself in. A viewer can easily identify with Calderwood's porcelain figures as they take refuge and seek solace in today's world.

Recently, Calderwood has been collaborating with Muncie Metal Spinning, a local family business in northern Indiana specializing in metal production processes that are in danger of becoming a lost art. Calderwood's new work incorporates the centuries-old practice of metal spinning with her figurative sculptures. This series is scheduled for exhibition in the summer of 2022, at the Limoges Fine Arts Museum in Limoges, France, and sponsored by the Syndicat Professionnel des Emailleurs Français.

Jessica Calderwood received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and her MFA from Arizona State University, with an emphasis in Metalworking. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally in curated and juried exhibitions. She has participated in artist residencies with the John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Program and the Mesa Arts Center. Her work has also been published in Metalsmith Magazine, American Craft, NICHE, Ornament, the Lark 500 series, and the Art of Enameling.

Public Collections include: Springfield Art Museum, MO; Kohler Company, Kohler, WI; John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Enamel Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Ferro Corporation, Cleveland, OH; Kamm Foundations, Sparta, NC; Ceramic Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa, AZ; National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, TN.

Artist News

Featured
Receiving the DeHann Artist of distinction award.
Receiving the DeHann Artist of distinction award.

Jessica Calderwood was chosen to be on of the DeHaan Artist of Distinction award recipients

Mary Alice Wimmer And Jessica Calderwood Receive Write-Up For Recent Exhibition
Mary Alice Wimmer And Jessica Calderwood Receive Write-Up For Recent Exhibition

The Tory Folliard Gallery is ushering in summer with two new exhibitions by painter Mary Alice Wimmer and metalworker and sculptor Jessica Calderwood.

Jessica Calderwood Featured In American Craft Magazine
Jessica Calderwood Featured In American Craft Magazine

How much of our true selves do we show to the world? When we look at others, do we see who they really are? Can we ever know what lies beneath the surface?

In her enameled paintings and jewelry, Jessica Calderwood captures imaginary characters in private moments and intimate places, with unguarded gestures: face in hands, fingers in mouth, belly button in extreme close-up. Surreal and enigmatic, her portraits have humor, attitude, and charm, but they’re also unsettling, for what they reveal and what they don’t.