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Selected Exhibitions and Interventions:
2022
Brief Histories Gallery, The Bowery, NY Inheritance
More Art, Columbus Park, Brooklyn Pennants & Poets, with the Fortune Society Writers, with Fred Wilson’s Mind Forged Manacles/
2021
Walking As A Question Conference, remote presentation, Prespa, Greece. Walks to Sites of Detention, Paris/Chicago
PS1/MoMA Pennants & Poets with the Fortune Society Writers. Participatory Public Installation
Art At A Time Like This, “First Responders” Online show
2020
Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY: Monuments Now! Ten Emerging Artist Fellowship Projects
Pierogi Gallery, NYC: First, Second and Third Person, group show
Tufts University Art Galleries, Somerville/Medford, MA, Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice Systm
Free EDC – Skytyping intervention, Elizabeth, NJ: Part of In Plain Sight, a coalition of 80 artists fighting immigrant detention and the culture of incarceration conceived by Cassils and rafa esparza
2019
TuftsPublic Artist 2019/20 Campus-wide collaborative ICE Escape Signs project for Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Site specific ICE Escape Signs installed at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and created for the Tisch Library, Tufts Medford Campus
Aidekman Art Gallery, Tufts Medford Campus: Exhibit of earlier ICE Escape Signs from various locations, on view for the 2019-20 academic year
Pelham Arts Center, Pelham, NY: ‘In/Flux’
Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn (after)Care with No Longer Empty Curatorial Lab
2018
3 Days, 42 Miles: Mobile Speakers Podium Chicago to Gary Walk – in collaboration with Regin Igloria
Ludlow 38 MINI/Goethe-Institut, NYC, ‘Due Process’
Contemporary Art Museum Houston TX ‘Walls Turned Sideways: Artists Confront the Justice System’
Fiendish Plots, Lincoln, NE ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ Two-person show
Paris School of Architecture, Paris, France: Brexit Monument, competition, with V. Mitch McEwen
2017
No Longer Empty group exhibition at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, NYC: ‘Hold These Truths’
7th Sense: Sanctuary – public sign project along 14th street, NYC, launched through Art in Odd Places: ‘Sense’
2016
Arts and Public Life, The Muffler Shop, U Chicago, ‘Mobile Speakers’ Podium for Citizens and Non-Citizens’ Public collaborative installation
Comfort Station, Chicago, IL ‘Mobile Speakers’ Podium for Citizens and Non-Citizens’ Public collaborative installation
Weinberg Gallery, Chicago, IL Soul Asylum
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL Residual Lives
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Agitprop! (2nd wave)
2015
Art in Odd Places: Recall (10th Anniversary Edition)
Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT: Acting on Dreams: The state of immigrant rights, conditions, and advocacy in the U.S
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Imaginary Archive Philadelphia: Traces in the Dark
Smack Mellon, DUMBO, New York Respond
2014
Art in Odd Places: Free Lengua, Libertad!
Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, NJ From There to Here
Gulf Labor, online, 52 Weeks of Gulf Labor
Winkleman Gallery, New York, NY The Wayland Rudd Collection – traveling to First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
Les Kurbas Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine Imaginary Archive Ukraine
BRIC House, Brooklyn, NY Biennial
2013
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland Museum of Arte Útil Archive
2012
Kaplan Institute, Northwestern University (n)IMBY
Queens Museum Panorama, New York Fifteen Islands for Robert Moses with Greg Sholette
2011
Storefront for Art and Architecture Strategies for Public Occupation
BRIC Rotunda Gallery Brooklyn, NY 30: A Brooklyn Salon
2010
QMAD, Queens Media Arts Development Space 37 Queens, NY Babel
BRIC Rotunda Gallery Brooklyn, NY The No Place
2009
Muñoz Waxman Gallery Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe NM Mapping a Green Future
Griffiss International Sculpture Park, Rome, NY Permanent public art commission
Rutgers University NJ Dana Women Artist Series: Rights of Culture, Culture of Rights Solo show
2008
Creative Time at the Park Ave. Armory New York, NY Democracy in America
BRIC Rotunda Gallery Brooklyn, NY Sound Off
White Box NY, NY Sedition!
Tompkins County Public Library Ithaca NY, Hovebibliotek, Copenhagen Unnamable Name
Trinity University Gallery San Antonio TX Eligible Traffic
Rutgers University, Paul Robeson Gallery/NJIT School of Architecture Newark, NJ
Neo-Constructivism: Art, Architecture and Activism
2007
Lower East Side Tenement Museum NY NY Trojan Horse Travel Agency Window Installation
Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning Queens, NY Jamaica Flux Public art project
Queens Library Gallery Jamaica, NY TRANS_
The Soap Factory Minneapolis, MN, Host
Aljira Center for Contemporary Art Newark, NJ Emerge 8
Hartnett Gallery, University of Rochester Rochester, NY Piece Process IV After Lebanon
2006
Newark Museum Newark, NJ 3+3 – Work from the Residency
dev.jennypolak.com/alien_within.htm Launch of Design for the Alien Within web project
Exit Art NY NY Studio Visit
2005
Cooper Union NY NY A Knock At The Door
2004
Schroeder Romero Brooklyn NY Watch What We Say
Gigantic Art Space NY NY Tactical Action
2003
The Carriage House Islip, Long Island Site Specifics
Exit Art NY Biennial: The Reconstruction
Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University CT Good Morning America
2002
Currier Museum of Art NH New York New Work Now
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Web Site NY launch of HardPlace web project
2001
Sarah Lawrence College Bronxville, NY Right 2 Fight
2000
Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University CT Black and Blue: Examining Police Violence
RepoHistory NY “Circulation” mail and web project
1998
Pomona College Montgomery Gallery Claremont, CA Maximum Security Democracy
1998
RepoHistory NY Civil Disturbances Public street sign project.
1997
Exit Art NY NY Public Notice
1996
Barbican Concourse Gallery London Rubies and Rebels: Jewish Female Identity in Contemporary British Art.
Traveled: Hove Museum, Manchester University Gallery, Leeds University Art Gallery and others, UK
1995
Laing Gallery Newcastle, UK Unleashed; Images and Experience of Disability Collaboration with Nancy Willis
SUNY Purchase Visual Arts Gallery NY Death Penalty-Death of Culture
Art for Change Isle of Dogs, London Fight For Rights Billboard project on wheelchair access.
Longwood Arts Gallery Bronx NY Conflict/Resolution
1994
Memorial Arch Brooklyn NY Trophies from the civil (Wars)
Artists Space NY NY Artists Select (selected by May Stevens)
1993
University of Illinois at Chicago, New Works Gallery Chicago IL Past, Tense
“You Gotta Have Park” Festival: Prospect Park, NY Are You Parked? Public art project.
1989
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK Whitechapel Open
Residencies, Awards:
2023
Camargo/EHESS Residency, Cassis, France – collaboration with Dread Scott and Clara Lecadet
2022
Villa Albertine/ANDEA Touring Artist Residency with 5 regional French art schools – collaboration with Dread Scott
BRIClab Residency, Dumbo, Brooklyn
Creatives Rebuild NY Artist Employment Award: grant to continue collaborations with the Fortune Society
2020
Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship
2019
Visiting Artist at Stony Brook University, Long Island, with Dread Scott
Tufts Public Artist, 2019-2020, Boston and Medford campuses, MA
2017
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Process Space Artist Residency
Camargo/Art Matters/Jerome Foundation Residency, Cassis, France – collaboration with Dread Scott
2014
Grand Canyon National Parks South Rim Artist in Residence – collaboration with Dread Scott
2012
Jean Gimble Lane Artist in Residence, Northwestern University
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship – Interdisciplinary Work
2011
BRIC Media Arts Fellowship
2009
Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM. Residency
2007
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Grant
Lower East Side Tenement Museum NY NY. Windows Installation Residency
2006
The Newark Museum Newark NJ Residency
Longwood Arts Project Bronx, NY Digital Matrix Award
Aljira Contemporary Art Center Newark NJ. Emerge Program
2005
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council NY NY Workspace Residency
2004
Franklin Furnace Future of the Present Award
2003
The Carriage House, Islip Art Museum Long Island NY. Residency
2001-02
Lower East Side Tenement Museum NY NY. Digital Artist Residency
1995
Sculpture Space Utica NY. Residency
1994
Art for Change/Signals London. National winner, Women in the Streets Billboard Project, collaboration with Nancy Willis
1990
Artists in East London Schools (Whitechapel Art Gallery program). Residency
Selected Collections:
MoMA Library, New York, NY
Griffiss International Sculpture Garden, Rome, NY
Collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, The International Contemporary Art Foundation, Louisville, KY
Christ’s College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
Selected Bibliography:
Lorch, Danna; Three Boston Exhibitions Confront Migration and Displacement The Art Newspaper, (October 26, 2019)
Hardy, Michael; A Houston Art Exhibit Gazes Unflinchingly at the Cruelty of Mass Incarceration Texas Observer (September 6, 2018)
Vartanian, Hrag; “In the Event of an ICE Raid, Please Follow These Signs” Hyperallergic (March 2, 2018)
Wolgamott, L. Kent; ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ is a provocative exhibit Lincoln Journal-Star (February 10, 2018)
Sierzputowski, Kate; review of the Mobile Speakers’ Podium for Citizens and Non-Citizens first public installation and activation at Comfort Station, Logan Square, Chicago. Hyperallergic (July 22 2016)
Shea, Anne; ‘Jenny Polak: Exposing/Hiding Citizen/Non-Citizen’ n.paradoxa vol. 34 (July 2014)
Driever, Juliana; “Jenny Polak: Artist Profile” Bad at Sports website (Nov 27 2013)
Sholette, Gregory; “Dark Matter; Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture” Pluto Books (2010)
Desai, Dipti “Unframing Immigration”, Peabody Journal of Education, 85: 4, 430 — 436 (2010)
Han, Heng-Gil; “Network and Fluid” Book about public art, published in Korea, (2010) p 72
Han, Heng-Gil; Sholette, Gregory; Erdosi, Aniko et al: Jamaica Flux 2007 exhibition catalogue (2008)
Greenwood, Warren: “Conceptual Ithaca” Ithaca Times (March 12 2008)
Genocchio, Benjamin: “From Young Storytellers, a Playful Tone” NY Times Regional Special (August 26 2007)
Bischoff, Dan: “Museum Program Bears Fruit” Newark Star-Ledger (June 9 2006)
Powhida, William: “Exit Art Biennial” Brooklyn Rail (June-July 2003): pp11-12
Harrison, Helen: “Site Specifics 03” NY Times (July 13 2003)
Smith, Roberta: “A Space Reborn, With A Show That”s Never Finished” NY Times (April 4 2003)
Mirapaul, Matt: “Within Walls and Memories: Dimensions of Detention” NY Times (June 10 2002)
Dodson, Sean: “Crime Watch” The Guardian (UK) Web Watch section (June 13 2002)
Training:
1993 Whitney Independent Study Program New York
1992 School of Visual Arts New York M.F.A. Fine Arts.
1988 St. Martins School of Art London B.A. (Hons.): Fine Art and Critical Studies.
1980 Cambridge University B.A. (Hons.): Architecture.