Jennifer Schurman is an emerging artist living in Pittsburgh, PA.
jenniferschurman@gmail.com
BIO
Jennifer Schurman lived her first years in the Republic of Panama, after which she was raised and educated in Miami, Florida. Having spent her entire youth in the tropics, near the ocean, Jennifer developed a strong connection to wildlife and the natural environment. She was also drawn to fine arts at a very young age, from which she strayed from time to time, but never fully abandoned.
In 2003, Jennifer graduated from The University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors Degree in International Relations and a minor in Fine Arts. After college, she worked in New York City and Pittsburgh in brand management and product development for several consumer goods companies across diverse product categories.
After taking a welcome hiatus to start a family, Jennifer became increasingly focused on environmental concerns, including that of the global plastic pollution crisis fueled by single-use plastic packaging. In 2019, Jennifer decided to leverage her passion for art and 3D design to bring awareness to unsustainable packaging models and unchecked consumption habits.
Jennifer is currently a sculptor at Radiant Hall Susquehanna in Pittsburgh, PA.
THE WORK
Jennifer Schurman’s current work uses post-consumer packaging waste to create skins and textures for her compositions. The artist aims to bring a heightened consciousness of our consumption habits and a due reverence to the mundane materials that have a lasting impact on our world.
Most consumer packaging materials are derived from non-renewable fossil fuels, millions of years in the making. The costs of extracting virgin resources, manufacturing, and disposing of packaging at end-of-use is typically disproportionate to its short life span. Additionally, the environmental costs resulting from the accumulation of non-recycled plastic waste has had a significant effect on our natural world. Despite global awareness of these conflicts, companies and consumers continue to depend on an unsustainable packaging model.
Through the accumulation and attentive handling of source material, Jennifer explores the tensions between preciousness and disposability, duty and desire, and the individual vs. the collective.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Three Rivers Arts Festival, Juried Exhibition. Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Pittsburgh PA
2022 Radiant Ball, Radiant Hall McKees Rocks, PIttsburgh, PA