Working across printmaking, design, and installation, Jordan Kendall Parks explores the ways land and material hold our stories.
Photo Credit: Mark Yaggie
Jordan's work fosters conversations about climate and environmental impacts through the lived experience as a Black and Bi-racial woman. For Jordan, many spaces have never fully felt like she belonged. As she ages, explores connections with a Black paternal family, and investigates the patterns of a white maternal family, Jordan has begun to extensively question who she is, where and how she belongs to place, and what people she belongs to. Jordan’s passion for engaging communities with Maine’s coastal landscapes stemmed from experiences in environmental and outdoor education and engaging people who may not have otherwise connected with southern Maine islands and waters.
Through interactive outdoor exhibitions and site-specific installations, Jordan encourages people to engage with their surroundings, find a sense of adventure and discover art along the way. On a smaller scale, Jordan commonly uses woodcut and linoleum monoprint processes to create visuals that are heavily influenced by our relationship with the natural world and each other.
Born 1990
Akron, OH
Art is embodiment for me; it’s synonymous to the lines I draw in nature on a surf or snowboard, it moves with the music I curate and dance to, it is more than the visual art I create with my hands. I hold an immense amount of respect for the lands of the Wabanaki people that I currently call "home,” and for those who have suffered and currently suffer from colonization, oppression and genocide - my ancestors included.
Education
• Massachusetts College of Art and Design: BFA Printmaking 2015
Awards & Grants
• 2024: Recipient of Coffee by Design’s Rebel Blend Grant for “Emergence”
• 2024: Kindling Fund Recipient for “Emergence”
• 2023: SnowFarm BIPOC Scholarship Recipient
• 2022: Awesome on the Water Grant for “Windward Exhibition”
• 2020: Brookie Award Recipient
• 2017: Kindling Fund Grant Recipient for "Surface First Tilts West"
• 2015: Recipient of 2D Departmental Award; Foundation Print Award
Public Art Exhibitions
• Emergence: Art in a Free Surface, Summer 2024, Portland, ME
• Oysters in the Park, Summer 2023, Congress Square Park
• Windward Exhibition, 2022, 2021, 2019, Casco Bay
• Surface First Tilts West, 2017, Casco Bay
Solo Shows
• Reciprocity, Friends & Family, Portland, ME 2024
• Oasis: Space Window Gallery, Portland, ME 2024
• Jordan Kendall Parks at the Carpenter’s Boat Shop, Bristol, ME 2022
• SeaWeed Co., South Portland, ME 2020-2021
• Art Mart, Portland, ME 2020
• Beasts of Burden, Bisq Cambridge, MA 2016
Selected Group Exhibitions & Artist Talks
• Electric Eclectic: Sacred Profane, Biddeford, ME 2024
• Housewarming: 82 Parris, Portland, ME 2023
• Windward Exhibition: (Curated and Participated), Portland, ME 2022
• NH Art Association NE Printmaker Exhibit, Portsmouth, NH 2022
• An Environmental Art Exhibit, Patagonia Outlet, Freeport, ME, 2022
• Windward Exhibition: (Curated and Participated), Portland, ME 2021
• By Land or By Sea: A View into the Surf Community, Engine, Biddeford, ME 2020
• Ted Talk: Brookie Awards with the Natural Resource Council of Maine, 2020
• Resilience of Diversity: Maine Collage of Art, 2020
• Windward Exhibition: (Curated and Participated), Portland, ME 2019
• Abyssinian Exhibition: Abyssinian Meeting House, Portland, ME 2019
• Fortitude: Arta Gallery, Falmouth, ME, 2019
• Surface First Tilts West: Curated Exhibition on an uninhabited island in Maine, 2017
(Made Possible by The Kindling Foundation and Space Gallery, Portland, ME)
• Artist Talk: SPACE Gallery, 2017
• Artist Talk: Technical Museum of East Iceland, 2017
Residencies
• 2023: Resident Artist, Indigo Arts Alliciance, Maine
• 2022: Resident Artist, The Carpenter’s Boat Shop, Maine
• 2022: Visiting Artist at Allagash Wilderness Waterway Residency, Maine
• 2017: Resident at Skaftfell Center for Visual Art, Iceland
• 2016: Resident at Hewnoaks Artist Colony, Lovell, Maine