Jennifer Small

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Lives and works in Wilmington, DE

My abstract paintings are a collage of my everyday, a compilation of my observed reality. They are about seeing, interpreting, and constructing new spaces derived from my experiences, straddling the line between representation and abstraction. I see daily routine as an opportunity to discover the wonder of banal environments. Whether I’m walking my dog around our neighborhood or exploring a new city,I am cataloging moments of aesthetic curiosity through photography. During this collection phase I open myself up to chance encounters with engaging shapes, textures, patterns, and contrasts in real life situations—a shadow being cast on the sidewalk, a tree branch overlapping the corner of a roof, power lines zig-zagging across a soft sunrise. The recorded images are then cropped, simplified, multiplied, minimized, enlarged, and/or rotated through a process of drawing and collage to arrive at the elements in my paintings. Several elements from the same place and time will be combined to build the abstract space in the painting. While my inspiration gathering is based on chance, my process of composing is structured and purposeful. I switch gears to make decisions about arranging my discoveries based on balance, hierarchy, unity, variety, and visual rhythm. My color palettes are either taken directly from the original photos, completely imagined, or a combination of the two. This is determined before painting begins. The finished work demonstrates loose, painterly areas juxtaposed with more rigid, hard-edge areas using acrylic paint in different applications (brush, palette knife, pour, spray, marker) on either canvas, wood panel, or paper. Varying the surface quality and substrates allows me to communicate the richness and diversity of my original sightings. My process as a whole acts as a way for me to solidify memories about specific times and places, each painting becoming a journal entry about my movements on a given day. My paintings meet at the intersection of unnoticed and poetic, personal and universal. I want to challenge the viewer to not only gain insights into my journey through the work, but also to consider slowing down to take in the visual grandness of their own seemingly mundane spaces. With this my hope is that the genre of abstract painting can be viewed through a more accessible lens. I earned a BFA in Studio Art and BS in Art Education from Millersville University in Pennsylvania and MFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia. I have participated in solo exhibitions at the Delaware Contemporary and Mezzanine Gallery in Wilmington, DE; Shockoe Artspace in Richmond, VA; and Sarah Gormley Gallery in Columbus, Ohio; among others. Group exhibition participation has included shows at James Oliver Gallery in Philadelphia, PA; MK Apothecary in New Jersey; Site: Brooklyn in Brooklyn, NY; and Aqua Art Miami in Miami, FL; among others. In both 2025 and 2023, I was featured in Create Magazine and Art Seen Magazine highlighting multiple bodies of work and insight into my painting practice. Other publication features include New Visionary Magazine, New American Paintings, and Artist Talk Magazine. I currently live and work in Wilmington, Delaware.

My abstract paintings are a collage of my everyday, a compilation of my observed reality. They are about seeing, interpreting, and constructing new spaces derived from my experiences, straddling the line between representation and abstraction. I see daily routine as an opportunity to discover the wonder of banal environments. Whether I’m walking my dog around our neighborhood or exploring a new city, I am cataloging moments of aesthetic curiosity through photography. During this collection phase I open myself up to chance encounters with engaging shapes, textures, patterns, and contrasts in real life situations—a shadow being cast on the sidewalk, a tree branch overlapping the corner of a roof, power lines zig-zagging across a soft sunrise. The recorded images are then cropped, simplified, multiplied, minimized, enlarged, and/or rotated through a process of drawing and collage to arrive at the elements in my paintings. Several elements from the same place and time will be combined to build the abstract space in the painting. While my inspiration gathering is based on chance, my process of composing is structured and purposeful. I switch gears to make decisions about arranging my discoveries based on balance, hierarchy, unity, variety, and visual rhythm. My color palettes are either taken directly from the original photos, completely imagined, or a combination of the two. This is determined before painting begins. The finished work demonstrates loose, painterly areas juxtaposed with more rigid, hard-edge areas using acrylic paint in different applications (brush, palette knife, pour, spray, marker) on either canvas, wood panel, or paper. Varying the surface quality and substrates allows me to communicate the richness and diversity of my original sightings. My process as a whole acts as a way for me to solidify memories about specific times and places, each painting becoming a journal entry about my movements on a given day. My paintings meet at the intersection of unnoticed and poetic, personal and universal. I want to challenge the viewer to not only gain insights into my journey through the work, but also to consider slowing down to take in the visual grandness of their own seemingly mundane spaces. With this my hope is that the genre of abstract painting can be viewed through a more accessible lens. I earned a BFA in Studio Art and BS in Art Education from Millersville University in Pennsylvania and MFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia. I have participated in solo exhibitions at the Delaware Contemporary and Mezzanine Gallery in Wilmington, DE; Shockoe Artspace in Richmond, VA; and Sarah Gormley Gallery in Columbus, Ohio; among others. Group exhibition participation has included shows at James Oliver Gallery in Philadelphia, PA; MK Apothecary in New Jersey; Site: Brooklyn in Brooklyn, NY; and Aqua Art Miami in Miami, FL; among others. In both 2025 and 2023, I was featured in Create Magazine and Art Seen Magazine highlighting multiple bodies of work and insight into my painting practice. Other publication features include New Visionary Magazine, New American Paintings, and Artist Talk Magazine. I currently live and work in Wilmington, Delaware.