Suite 907: Jenni Crain

Suite 925: Untitled Exhibition (for Jenni)

Gordon Robichaux is honored to present two exhibitions dedicated to Jenni Crain (1991–2021) exploring her artistic and curatorial practices. This presentation is the artist’s third with the gallery, following a two-person show with Miles Huston in 2019, and two posthumous solo exhibitions in 2022 at Gordon Robichaux and in collaboration with Kerry Schuss Gallery.

The centerpiece of Crain’s solo show is the debut of the artist’s final artwork, Untitled (2021/2025), a large basswood floor sculpture installed in Suite 907 as Crain envisioned it for the room. In December 2021, days before her passing, Crain visited Gordon Robichaux to discuss her upcoming exhibition and share her ideas for a new wood sculpture conceived for the gallery’s smaller space. When she arrived, she mapped out a large rectangle on the floor for her object (roughly 105 x 90 inches), considered space for a wheelchair to move around it, described its material and visual qualities (“wood, complex joinery, lattice, screens, optical moiré…”), and presented numerous fabrication drawings for it. This would be her largest and most ambitious sculpture to date. She went on to loosely describe a second work that she envisioned for the wall: a large ribbon made of Japanese paper tied around a wooden peg and inspired by a similar object her fabricator created for a boat restoration. Unfortunately, she presented no drawings or further details for this latter work.

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With the instruction of Crain’s precise drawings and measurements for the floor sculpture, Gordon Robichaux collaborated with The Jenni Crain Foundation, as well as her friend artist Miles Huston, and woodworkers Brian Nichols and Matthew Granick (fabricators of Crain’s recent works), to realize her final artwork.

The Untitled sculpture comprises two nearly identical rectangular wood structures—93 x 60 x 3 and 93 x 57 x 3 inches respectively—that occupy a large portion of the center of the room. Each is constructed with a lattice of rectilinear wooden segments that delineate a geometric grid of sixty 6 x 6 inch square voids. The two structures rest on short wooden dowels, or legs, of varied lengths (6 or 3 inches), and sit perpendicular to the floor. Arranged side by side as two low, horizontal planes, one of the panels rests on, and partially overlaps, the other.

Consistent with Crain’s previous works, Untitled distills a range of references related to the artist’s interest in the built environment: wood, joinery, furniture, and architecture. The sculpture’s tiered structure implies motion stilled, evoking screens, doors, or gates held in a fleeting, liminal moment of transition. Its production and display are the fulfilment of Crain’s vision for the object, its specific presence in this room, and its potential to exist elsewhere in future contexts. In the physical absence of the artist and the large ribbon tied to a peg, we embrace Crain’s insistence on considering that which is transient and fugitive—experience, memory, emotion, and the human body—in relation to the placement of an object in space.

In Suite 925, Gordon Robichaux has assembled Untitled Exhibition (for Jenni), a group exhibition with works by twenty artists Crain championed through her research and curatorial practice: Kan Asakura, March Avery, Justin Chance, Talia Chetrit, Tee Corinne, Loretta Dunkelman, Joachim “Yoyo” Friedrich, Nick Fusaro, Ann Gillen, Anna Glantz, Janice Guy, Maren Hassinger, Becky Howland, Miles Huston, Alex Ito, Lee Mary Manning, Kate Millett, Matt Paweski, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, and Owen Westberg. This network of artists and objects illuminates Crain’s wide-ranging interests and relationships as well as the continued life and relevance of her legacy. 

Gratitude for the collaboration and support of The Jenni Crain Foundation (Allison Boyd and Sabrina Tamar, Director), Miles Huston, Brian Nichols, Jenna Rosenberg, and Matthew Shapiro.

Jenni Crain (1991–2021) was a New York-based artist, writer, and curator. She received her BFA in Sculpture from Pratt Institute in 2013, and her master’s degree in Curatorial Studies at CCS Bard in 2021. In 2012 she completed an exchange program at Central Saint Martins in London. Crain was the director of kaufmann repetto in New York from 2016 to 2019 and, in 2021, was appointed director at Miguel Abreu Gallery. She co-founded and co-directed Topless, a seasonal gallery based in Rockaway Beach, New York, from summer 2014 to 2016. Crain was the founder and organizer of O.O. & M.M. (Only Once & Many More), an ongoing curatorial project that encouraged adaptability and deviation from standardized models of exhibition making. Her estate is represented by Gordon Robichaux in New York.

As an artist, Crain’s work has been the subject of solo presentations at Gordon Robichaux, New York (2022, 2019: two-person with Miles Huston); Kerry Schuss Gallery, New York, in cooperation with Gordon Robichaux, New York (2022); Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, curated by Eduardo Andres Alfonso (2022); Baba Yaga, Hudson, New York (2018); 321 Gallery, Brooklyn (2017); The Java Project, Brooklyn (2015); and Y Gallery, New York (2015).

The artist’s work has been included in group exhibitions at Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto (2024); Pumice Raft, Toronto (2021); La MaMa Galleria, New York, curated by Sam Gordon (2021); Parker Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); OCTAGON x Maroncelli, Milan, curated by Jacopo Mazzetti and Matt Paweski (2019); Gordon Robichaux, New York (2018); ZAX, Brooklyn (2016); KANSAS, New York (2016); Torrance Shipman, Brooklyn (2016); Ray Smith Studio, Brooklyn (2015); and Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles (2014); among others.

Crain’s art and curatorial projects have been featured in The New York Times, Artforum, and New York Magazine, among others.

She curated exhibitions, including Synonyms for Sorrow at Gordon Robichaux, New York (2022) and Charim Schleifmühlgasse, Vienna (2021); Kate Millett: Terminal Piece at the Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson (2021); Tee A. Corinne: Selections from the Lesbian Herstory Archives at Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2020); Tee Corinne: Bodies of Work at MBnb, New York (2019); March Avery at Barnard College, New York (2019); as well as exhibitions at Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga; SORT, Vienna; 55 Walker (operated by Bortolami Gallery, Andrew Kreps Gallery, and kaufmann repetto), New York; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; and Shanaynay, Paris; among others.

Crain contributed texts and essays to a range of publications, including the catalog of the 58th Carnegie International (on Kate Millet, 2023); The Wattis Institute Library (2020); F Magazine (2020); Aperture PhotoBook Review (2019); and for Blum & Poe, New York (on March Avery, 2019).

Crain led lectures and discussions at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, where she was Curatorial Fellow in 2020; Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD); Bard College; Pratt Institute; and Westreich Wagner.

Her website includes a comprehensive list of her curatorial projects and exhibition history, as well as images and information documenting many of her artworks: www.jennicrain.com.

The Jenni Crain Foundation preserves the artist’s legacy by supporting transformative projects by artists, curators, and writers of any age at early or pivotal stages of their career. For more information: www.jennicrainfoundation.org.