I work with both abstract and figurative forms, exploring shape, surface texture, and shadow in a variety of media. My current work expands on recurring themes of transition—those states between rising and falling, sinking and floating, helping and hurting. Painted and kiln-cast glass forms abstract the eddies and swirls of seawater. Large- and small-scale multimedia drawings reveal archetypal figurative compositions, the groupings of simplified forms on reduced backgrounds sometimes chaotic, sometimes choreographed. The figures are caught in mid-action, interacting in ambiguous ways.

Water has been a fascination in my work. I am intrigued by its transparency and mass, its power and fragility, its interactions with light and wind and human forms. The works on paper are from several series of large-scale studies of wave forms and patterns and motion that I have been working on for many years. The glass pieces are from a series of painted and kiln-fused glass diptychs on a smaller scale but exploring similar themes. These glass works consist of multiple painted layers, now allowing light to pass through the work and adding dimensionality, but still retaining the same sense of texture and pattern. As the series develops, the works become more complex, merging the imagery from the works on paper, and consisting of more layers of painted glass and more panels pieced together, and eventually using larger panels.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2019 Transparency, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli, NY (curator)

New Year, New Works, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli, NY

2018 Drift – An Ongoing Installation: Mark Bennett and Jennifer Harris, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli, NY

2015 Jennifer Harris—Water: Forms, Bright Hill Gallery, Treadwell, NY

Art about Water, Space Create, Newburgh, NY

Modern Sculpture & the Romantic Landscape, Wilderstein, Rhinebeck, NY (curator)

2014 Mark Bennett & Jennifer Harris: Wood Glass Light Time – An Evolving Installation, Jennifer Harris Studio and Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli, NY

2013 Anniversary Show, Tivoli Artists Gallery, Tivoli, NY

2011 Disaster Relief: A Two-Person Show, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

2010 The Dark Side, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY (curator)

2009 Group Show, J. Damiani Gallery, Hudson, NY (curator)

Works on Paper, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

2008 Jennifer Harris & Mark Bennett: Recent Works, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

2007 Recent Works, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY (curator)

The Body Eclectic, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

2005 Encounters with Sculpture, CCCA Artswalk, Hudson, NY

Kingston Sculpture Biennial, Kingston, NY

Recent Works, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

2004 Bennett & Harris: New Sculpture in Wood and Wax, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

CCCA Members Sculpture and Mixed Media, Old Allen Street School, Hudson, NY

2003 Works on Paper, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

Carnevale, Tivoli Artists Co-op, Tivoli, NY

2000 Sheen of Silver, Weight of Air, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR

Preview Exhibit, Washington State Convention & Trade Center, Seattle

1999 Poncho Artists-in-Residence, Pratt Gallery at CoCA, Seattle

Preview Exhibit, Pratt Auction, Seafirst Gallery, Seattle

1998 New Glass from the Pacific Northwest, Craft Alliance, St. Louis

Preview of Selected Works, Pratt Auction, Seafirst Gallery, Seattle

Figure It Out, Pratt Gallery at CoCA, Seattle

1997 Introductions: New Work, Linda Hodges Gallery, Seattle

Glass Invitational, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle

1996 Group Show, Metropolis Gallery, Seattle

Northwest Annual, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle

1995 Drawings & Paintings, Metropolis Gallery, Seattle

1994 Group Show, Metropolis Gallery, Seattle

1985 Identities, Marden Fine Arts, New York

Post-Rigmarole, El Bohio Gallery, New York

1984 Real Small Art, traveling exhibition

Group Show, Hunter College, New York

GRANTS AND AWARDS

1998–99 PONCHO Artist-in-Residence, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle

1996 Merit Scholarship, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA

EDUCATION: B.A. Visual Arts – Bennington College, Bennington, VT