Jeanne Silverthorne

Jeanne Silverthorne (b. 1950, Philadelphia, PA) lives and works in New York, NY. For more than three decades, Jeanne Silverthorne has made the studio her subject. Her work is meticulous and personal, first modeling everyday objects in clay and then casting them in industrial-grade rubber. These objects reflect reality, but tinted with phosphorus or altered in scale, they retain their uniqueness. Banal objects become metaphors for the inevitability of age and decay, but tempered with humor, hope, and humanity. Nature is ever-present in her work: dandelions and weeds grow between rubber floorboards, trompe l'oeil sunflowers and flies become still lifes, her memento mori.

Silverthorne came of age as an artist at a time when women sculptors were often inspired by Eva Hesse, and Silverthorne was no different. But her work is closer to the "handmade readymades" of Robert Gober, whose sinks and cribs are rooted in memory.  Ultimately, her work is quiet and poignant, a counterpoint to the austerity of male formalism: Serra, Judd, and Andre. Her subjects are imbued with humility and materiality.

Jeanne Silverthorne received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Temple University. For over two decades, she exhibited at the prestigious McKee Gallery until David and Renee McKee retired in 2015. Her solo museum exhibitions include MoMA PS1, NY; the ICA Philadelphia, PA; the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.; and the Whitney Museum, NY. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. Her work is included in many major museum collections, including MoMA, New York; MFA Houston; SFMOMA, CA; and the Whitney Museum in New York.