Bio:

Jonathan Durham received his MFA in Sculpture from UCLA and completed a two-year residency at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s CORE Program in 2007. His practice examines the shifting boundary between the self and the environment, confronting how industry and technology leave lasting marks on consciousness, bodies and landscapes. Through sculptural installation, video and performance, Durham draws connections between environmental damage, cognitive decline, and forms of state violence. His work has been exhibited internationally including Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Galerie fur Gegenwartskunst, Bremen, Germany. He is the recipient of an Aunspaugh Fellowship from the University of Virginia where he received a dual BA in Studio Art and Psychology. He has taught Sculpture, Drawing, Performance and Critical Issues Seminars at the University of Virginia, Rice University, University of Houston, Auburn University and the Elmore Correctional Facility in Elmore County Alabama. Durham has participated in numerous artist residencies including VCCA, Recess, NY,.“Session", SHIFT -The Elizabeth Foundation, Socrates Sculpture Park EFA Program, Bemis Arts Center and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Durham is Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi.

Artist Statement:

My work in sculpture and performance explores the porous boundaries between the self and the environment. By "the self," I mean a constellation of spiritual, somatic and neural networks, while "the environment" refers to the earth, our impact on ecosystems, and the mysteries of space. Sculpture allows me to investigate these intersections, initially drawing from my own body in both scale and subject matter. My injuries, addictions, patterns, and scars provided a roadmap, using materials like latex, human hair, tobacco, and baked bread to create sculptures that reflect the body's fragility and the potential for transformation. In the studio, I work with found objects, industrial fragments, digital and direct modeling, and molds - focusing on seams, holes, perforations, and breaches—the language of bodies. I use traditional techniques alongside newer 3D technologies. Sometimes the mold of a object becomes the final work - as a way of describing the literal and subjective impression industrial objects make on our lives.

I began making work about the environmental crisis after watching medical videos of my knee reconstructive surgery. I noticed disturbing similarities between orthopedic drilling through bone and ligament and the excavation methods used for oil and gas extraction. The footage from either process is nearly indistinguishable when lined up side by side. After a residency in Houston, TX, I became more aware of the oil and gas industry's impact on global health, history, and politics. I started repeating the mantra, "What we do to the land, we do to our bodies." This led to a critical interest in the equipment of extraction, from diamond-tipped drill bits to everyday propane tanks. I also began drawing comparisons between fossil fuel extraction and violent police tactics - for example the similarities between a retractable police baton and pipe drill casings rammed deep into the earth's crust.

My recent work is inspired by more narrative sources. In "Just Make Cookies," I outfitted a grease-covered 5th wheel coupler from a semi-truck with a propane burner to bake a giant chocolate chip cookie, referencing an petrochemical representative's advice to Tulsa, Ok residents to "just bake cookies" in their homes to mask the effects of refinery off-gassing. The dual smells of burning sugar and automotive grease permeated the entire 2000 sq ft gallery and surrounding city block. This led me to research environmental toxins' impact on my family, particularly my mother, who battled Alzheimer's. Her disease prompted questions about environmental triggers and what may have accelerated her cognitive decline.