unexpected projects, a collaboration between
Jenny Salomon and
Jennifer Stager, aims to make art more accessible to wide-ranging audiences while providing artists with a platform from which to experiment. From installing site-specific shows on a former prisoner transport bus, to curating exhibitions in alternative spaces, to producing digital media collaborations, unexpected projects creates opportunities for people to have spontaneous experiences with art.
As a visual artist, curator and director of a foundation, Jenny is interested in ways to merge art and community. In 2010, she curated a show in conjunction with
Metropolis Ensemble Orchestra; musicians and art were spread throughout a Brooklyn brownstone. The audience created their own experience as they walked through the house. In 2011, she curated a show with
Afghan Women Leaders CONNECT; proceeds funded internships for 12 women at a design studio in Kabul. Her artwork has been shown at NYC galleries including Frederieke Taylor Gallery, Momenta Art, On Stellar Rays, Postmasters Gallery, and Rush Arts Gallery, and in San Francisco at Nooworks and Root Division.
A childhood laboring on an archaeological dig in the Middle East honed Jennifer’s interest in the stories we tell about material remains and prompted her to pursue a PhD in the history of art (received 2012,
UC Berkeley), which included fellowships from the
Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts and the
Getty Research Institute and extensive travel. Since returning home to San Francisco in Fall 2013, Jennifer has focused on writing, curating, and creating alternative spaces for art. Jennifer’s essay “
Hold On” appeared on Goop and her forthcoming essay, “Mending with Gold,” will appear in a mixed media book,
Scars: an Anthology. Jennifer is also revising for submission her book,
Puddles in the Morning,
or The World Upside Down, a coming-of-age account of losing her mother to early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease and finding herself through that slow loss.
Image: Jenny Salomon,
untitled, ink and gouache on paper, 2015
