Skip to content

Pull Quote

"I make paintings, drawings, and installations that abstract the landscape, investigating the precarious relationship between nature and technology. These works wrestle with the beauty and complexity of the environment and how we as humans engage with the world, both directly and indirectly mediated through digital tools."

Jered Sprecher - Artists - FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY

Biography

J E R E D  S P R E C H E R   | | |   biography

[lives & works – Knoxville, TN]

 

JERED SPRECHER lives and works in Knoxville, TN. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, UT Jefferson Prize, a Bailey Opportunity Grant, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. Sprecher has been awarded residencies at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, Chinati Foundation, American Academy in Rome, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Sprecher has exhibited at The Drawing Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Des Moines Art Center, Hunter Museum, Asheville Art Museum, The Suburban, and Espai d'art Contemporani de Castelló. He has had solo exhibitions at Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York; Gallery 16, San Francisco; Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston; Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta; Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles; Whitespace, Atlanta; and the Knoxville Museum of Art. He received his BA from Concordia University and his MA and MFA from the University of Iowa. Sprecher has taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and Cornell University. He joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee in 2005 and is a Professor of Painting & Drawing in the School of Art at the University of Tennessee. 

Jered Sprecher - Artists - FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY

Artist Statement

I make paintings, drawings, and installations that use analog and digital technologies to abstract the landscape. These artworks probe the precarious relationship between nature and technology. My paintings wrestle with the beauty and complexity of the environment and how we as humans interact with the world, whether through direct experience or mediated through digital tools. I gather photographic images of flowers, thick forests, and sun-dappled foliage, seeking images that evoke wonder, depict natural beauty, and the complexity of the world. In the process of painting, I translate these images through technological filters that affect changes, ruptures, and glitches in the image. In these paintings, I weave together multiple images, creating a technologically abstract tapestry of natural forms, evoking both beauty and trepidation. The underlying grid in the paintings pushes and pulls at the imagery, as flowers and forms emerge and are pulled back into the flickering tangle. Each painting’s highly touched surface evokes glowing digital screens while remembering sunlight’s gentle caress.

Jered Sprecher - Artists - FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY

curriculum vitae

EDUCATION                                  

1999   BA, Concordia University, Seward, NE

2001   MA, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

2002   MFA, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024   Monument of Dirt & Air, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, GA

2024   The Space Between Earth and Sky, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2023   Wonder & Dread, Whitespace, Atlanta, GA

2021   House of Leaves, University Art Gallery, University of the South, Sewanee, TN

           Summer Noise, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN

2018   Divided Light, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY

           Grammar of the Ground, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA

           Still We Move, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN

2017   Outside In, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN

2016   Now & Not Yet, Marxhausen Gallery Concordia University, Seward, NE

           Jered Sprecher: Recent Work, Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville, TN

2015   The Hollow That Echoes, Gallery Protocol, Gainesville, FL

2014   Half Moon Maker, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA

           Stacking Stones, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA

           Beats/Breaks, Staple Goods, New Orleans, LA

           Here & There, Tops Gallery, Memphis, TN

           Jered Sprecher, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY.

2013   Jered Sprecher, The Locker Plant, Chinati Foundation Marfa, TX

           I Always Lie, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY

           Dreams of Architects and Poets, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

2012   Fraktur, Times Club/Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA (catalog).

2011   Als Ick Kan, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA

           Shadows of Friction, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA

2010   Monumental Dust, Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

           Jered Sprecher Solo Project, VoltaNY, New York, NY

           Wen U R Luvd it iz t% much, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN

2009   Digging in the Dirt, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY

           Jered Sprecher: Recent Work, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA

           Drift, Cress Gallery of Art, the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN           

           Truth in Tension, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA

2007   Furniture of the Universe, Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York, NY

           Jered Sprecher, The Art Gallery of Knoxville, TN (catalog)

           Jered Sprecher, Process Room, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2005   Never Finished, GFL Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

           The Cabinet, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IL

 

TWO + THREE PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2022   Brian Jobe & Jered Sprecher: Serious Play, Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA.

2022   Heather Hartman & Jered Sprecher, Strange Light, Channel to Channel, Chattanooga, TN

2015   Michael Jones McKean & Jered Sprecher: Three Carbon Tons, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN

2010  Pictures Hold Us Captive: Carrie Moyer & Jered Sprecher, Downtown Gallery, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

           Mark Holmes, Britta Bogers, & Jered Sprecher, Devening Projects, Chicago, IL

2004   New Spaces: Dan Attoe & Jered Sprecher, Wendy Cooper Gallery, Chicago, IL

Jered Sprecher - Artists - FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY

CV cont'd

COLLECTIONS

            Aslan Foundation, Knoxville, TN

            Black Halo, Los Angeles, CA

            Museum of Modern Art/ Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, NY, NY

            Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN

            Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN

            Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS

            New York Public Library, Special Collections, New York, NY

            Progressive Corporation, Cleveland, OH

            Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

            Tama Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

            The University of Iowa, Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA

            The University of Tennessee, Ewing Gallery of Art

 

HONORS + AWARDS

2023   Affiliated Fellowship, American Academy in Rome, Italy

2022   Faculty Development Leave, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.

2019   Individual Artist Fellowship, Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville, TN

2018-21   Jefferson Prize, Office of the Chancellor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

2017-18   Ann & Steve Bailey Opportunity Grant, Arts & Culture Alliance, Knoxville, TN

2017   Grant Recipient, National Endowment for the Arts, Challenge Grant

2017   Artist in Residence, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA.

2013   Artist in Residence, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas.

2013   FINALIST,5x5 Castello 2013, Premi Internacional d’art Contemporani

            Disputacio de Castello, Spain.    

2009   FELLOWSHIP, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

2007   Artist-in-Residence, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2003   FELLOWSHIP, Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, New York, NY

 

EXHIBITION CATALOGS + PUBLICATIONS + DOCUMENTARIES

2020   Joan Waltemath ed., Nancy Princenthal, Raphael Rubinstein, Jutta Koether,

Barry Schwabsky, contributors, Re Thinking Painting, Maryland Institute

College of Art, Baltimore, MD. (reproduction of painting)

2019   Jason Andrew, Appalachia Now!: An Interdisciplinary Survey of Contemporary Art in

            Southern Appalachia, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC. 58pgs.

2019   Marc Ethan Mitchell, Decoy: Tauba Auerbach, Trudy Benson, Tara Donovan,

            Corin Hewitt, & Jered Sprecher, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 16pgs.

2018   Amos Oakes, “Friday Artisans featuring Jered Sprecher”, Community Television of

            Knoxville, https://vimeo.com/257751971

2017   Artist to Artist, Vol. 2, Sharpe-Walentas Foundation, New York, NY, 480pgs

2017   Stephen Wicks & Jered Sprecher, Jered Sprecher: Outside In, The Knoxville Museum

            of Art, Knoxville, TN, 48pgs.

2017   Paul Harrill & Jered Sprecher, Jered Sprecher: Outside In, video 9 minutes 33 secs.,

            Documentary video filmed and edited by Paul Harrill.

2015   Michael Wilson, Memory Device: Jered Sprecher, Open Studio Press, 48pgs.

2014   Bill Donovan, Stacking Stones, Gallery 16, San Francisco, CA. Published by ISSUU,

            28 pgs.

2012   Scott Anderson, Jered Sprecher: Fraktur, Times Club/Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA

2011   Jon Lutz, Working Title, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY

2007   Luis Camnitzer, et al., Non-Declarative: Drawing Papers: Vol. 71, Sept. 2007

2007   Chris Molinski, Jered Sprecher, & Wendy White, Jered Sprecher: Truth in Tension, The Art Gallery of Knoxville, Knoxville, TN