Wit, meticulous craft, and surprising juxtapositions of meaning are hallmarks in the paintings, photographs, and mixed media works by Jane Hammond. Hammond incorporates an encyclopedic collection of images—from the past and present, history and fiction—to explore the fluidity of meaning as images shift, a process she has referred to as “recombinant DNA.” Her recent works take the form of collaged photographs, 3-D drawings, and “Dazzle paintings,” which are titled for the reflective materials used and the phenomena that ensue.
“I really trust when the idea comes to me as a fully formed thing, and it’s in my mind, and it starts demanding to be made, like a kid demanding to be fed. I don’t critique it. I just assume that it comes from a very rich place. That place isn’t me; I am just the medium.”
—Jane Hammond
Loose Tapestry of Daily Life (Compass), 2013. Private Collection.
Hammond’s works can be found in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minnesota; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois; and Albertina, Austria. Her works have been the subject of solo museum exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Massachusetts; deYoung Museum, California; Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Colorado; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; and FLAG Art Foundation, New York.
Hammond was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1950. She currently lives and works in New York City.
