Jessica Rankin (born 1971, Sydney) is an Australian artist who lives and works in New York. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in the US, Europe and Australia, including

White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Cent ...

, London (2007),

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, the ...

, New York (2006) and Franklin Artworks, Minneapolis (2005). Rankin is best known for her

organdy Organdy or Organdie is a kind of sheer fabric. It is a lightweight balanced plain weave cotton with features of sheerness and crispness. Characteristics Organdy is a stiffened material; sheerest among its peers, such as lawn cloth and Batis ...

embroidery, although she also produces works in other mediums.

Personal life

Rankin's father is the artist David Rankin, and her mother is poet and playwright

Jennifer Rankin Jennifer Rankin (born Jennifer Mary Haynes) (28 November 1941 – 8 December 1979) was an Australian poet and playwright. Early life and education Jennifer Mary Haynes was born in Chatswood, New South Wales, on 28 November 1941. She grew up in ...

. Her step-mother is author and poet

Lily Brett Lily Brett (born Lilijahne Brajtsztajn 5 September 1946, Feldafing displaced persons camp, Bavaria, Germany) is an Australian novelist, essayist and poet. She lived in North Carlton and then Elwood/Caulfield (suburbs of Melbourne) from 1948 t ...

. Rankin shares her studio with her partner, artist

Julie Mehretu Julie Mehretu (born November 28, 1970) is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urban ...

Work

Incorporating

embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...

and

needlework Needlework is decorative sewing and textile arts handicrafts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework. Needlework may include related textile crafts such as crochet, worked with a hook, or tatting, worked with ...

, Rankin's work and her

'embroidered paintings' feature a series of 'mental maps' with codes, signs, and symbols that explore ideas of memory, intuition, and interpretation. Key embroidered works include ''Nocturne'' (2004), ''Hour to Hour'' (2007), ''Everything is Still There'' (2005) and ''Passage (Dusty Humming)'' (2007), which presented a new style of embroidered work focusing solely on text rather than text with image. Rankin also creates drawings and watercolors that offer information on the process. Sketches of biomorphic forms are featured alongside abstract representations of astral or lunar cycles, while other studies depict recognizable scenery. Rankin's first European show at

in 2007 highlighted this side of Rankin's practice by displaying 88 drawings and watercolors in their

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digit ...

gallery. Key works on paper include ''Cloud & Sun'' (2003), ''San Miguel'' (2005), ''Word Construction'' (2005), ''Leaves'' (2006), ''Rockface'' (2006) and ''Couple'' (2006).White Cube — Jessica Rankin
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Solo exhibitions

*2007 White Cube, London *2006 The Measure of Every Pause, P.S. 1 Contemporary Arts Center, Long Island City, NY *2005 Franklin Artworks, Minneapolis, MN *2004 The Project, New York, NY *1999 First Floor Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

References

External links

Jessica Rankin feature at StudioVisit.netJessica Rankin at White Cube gallery, LondonJessica Rankin at The Project gallery, New YorkJessica Rankin review from 2005 in Art In America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rankin, Jessica 1971 births Living people Australian contemporary painters Australian printmakers Lesbian painters American lesbian artists Australian lesbian artists American LGBT painters Australian LGBT painters Artists from New York (state) Artists from Sydney Australian expatriates in the United States Australian women painters Australian contemporary artists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists 20th-century printmakers American women printmakers 20th-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian women artists Australian embroiderers

Personal life

Work

Solo exhibitions

References

Further reading

External links