December 6, 2024

Jennifer Schmidt is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, NY, who works with print media, graphic design, writing, and sound to create site-responsive installations, video, and performances that question the role of visual iconography and repetitive actions within a given environment. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Studio Art and Art History from the University of Delaware; and is Professor of the Practice in Print at SMFA at Tufts University in Boston, MA.

Recent exhibitions and performances include: DeBouwput Galerie, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Miriam Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; 32. Biennial of Graphic Arts, International Centre for Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; International Print Center New York, NY; Open Engagement, Queens Museum, NY; BRIC, Brooklyn, NY; EFA Project Space, New York, NY; and Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA. Recent artist residencies include: TYPA, Estonia; AGA Lab, Amsterdam; Frans Masereel Centre, Belgium; Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, MD; Kala Art Institute, CA; Skaftfell Center for Visual Art, Iceland; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency on Governor’s Island, NY; Nida Art Colony, Lithuania; The Banff Centre, Canada; and The Morgan Conservatory, OH. Jennifer Schmidt is a two-time fellow in Printmaking /Drawing/Book Arts from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and is a grant recipient from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This textile design and printing research project began in 2022. Jennifer Schmidt screenprinted the textile poster swatches at AGA Lab in Amsterdam, dye sublimate printed the textile clothing designs at IEA at Alfred University, NY, and is in the process of collaborating on the development and making of 3D digitally knit sculpture/functional objects at the Textiel Lab at the Textiel Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands.

This project is an homage to the woman designer and printer Clara Posnanski, who worked as part of the Wiener Werkstatte, and disappeared during World War 2. Her textile samples are documented and found in museum collections with her birthdate and death date listed as the same year.

This project expands on her work to show how contemporary design and printing— specifically print-on-demand technologies have expanded and changed the role of manufacturing and distribution today.

I was able to successfully create many large format dye sublimation prints of clothing design patterns using my scanned large-scale poster-sized textile swatches. The textile swatches were created at AGA Lab in Amsterdam by screenprinting a hand-made paper-cut line pattern design onto found / purchased textiles from the Albert Cuyp Market.

I then scanned the resulting screenprinted textile swatch posters to create digital files / digital patterns to be used for dye sublimation printing with clothing design templates. The large-format dye sublimated prints were heat pressed onto various synthetic textiles — used to create print-on-demand clothing such as leggings, swimwear, athleisure, sportswear, etc. I heat-pressed my designs onto Yoga Repreve, Boardshort, Uni Repreve, Mesh Micro, and Jersey Spandex Wicking fabrics. The names of the fabrics mimic the use and role of the clothing designs printed, and show the contemporary role of textile design today in everyday fashion.