Curriculum Vitae
JEAN DENNEY Lawrence, KS | 785/414-8507 | denneydance@gmail.com | www.jdenneyart.com
INVITED EXHIBITIONS
2025 Vault of Visions Gallery, Frederick, MD August-October
2023 Morris Gallery, NOTO Arts Center, Topeka, KS - Three Sisters Legend
2023 785 Gallery - Topeka, KS
SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 Tim Murphy Art Gallery, Merriam, KS - Natural Wanderings - shared exhibition with
Chris Gipson
2022 Baker University Wetlands Discovery Center, Lawrence, KS - Pandemic Paintings: Plein
Air Watercolor in the Wetlands
SELECT JURIED GROUP ART EXHIBITIONS
2024 Arts Connect Gallery, Topeka, KS - Annual Artist Inc Alumni Show
2024 Featured Artist: stART the Conversation, Wyandot Behavioral Health Network, Kansas
City, KS
2024 Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA - FEAST
2024 Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center, Overland Park, KS - STASH3
2023 Arts Connect Gallery, Topeka, KS - Artist Inc 2023
2022 Art Emergency, Lawrence, KS - October Group Sow
Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO - September Group Show
2021 Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO - November Group Show
PUBLICATIONS/COMMISSIONS
2019 Illustration for Mother Earth Living; Landscaping with Medicinal Plants, Jessi Bloom,
March/April
JURIED FELLOWSHIPS
2023 Artist Inc - Mid America Art Alliance and Arts Connect, Topeka, KS
1994 Graduate Residency - Choreography, Institute for Studies in the Arts, Tempe, AZ
1990, 1991, 1993 Maryland Dance Showcase for Choreographers - Mayor's Advisory
Council on Art and Culture, Baltimore, MD
SELECT ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
2024 Lied Center and Kennedy Early Education, Lawrence, KS
2023 Lied Center, Lawrence, KS
2023 Ballard Center, Lawrence, KS
2022 Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, Lawrence, KS
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Dance History, Culture, and Performance Practice - Texas Woman’s University
M.F.A. Dance, Performance & Choreography - Arizona State University
C.M.A. Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (NYC)
B.A. English, minor Studio Art: Painting & Drawing - Notre Dame of Maryland University
Artist Information
Bio
Jean Denney is an emerging painter who works in watercolor, ink, and oil. Her love of the human figure stems from a lifelong study of dance. Her focus shifted from visual art to performing arts when offered an opportunity to tour with a dance company while still in college. After a 30-year career in dance, she returned to visual art making and began painting landscape en plein air, messing around in her studio, and seeking out figure drawing opportunities. Creating communion between the somatic human experience and living landscape drives her landscape work which has been shown in Kansas City, MO, Topeka and Lawrence, KS. Her still life paintings and figure drawing have been shown in Boston, MA, and Baltimore, MD.
Process
For me, painting is like dancing; it's never the same twice. I practice soma-aesthetics. That is to say, I simultaneously shape my bodily awareness with the conscious intention to express and create art. For me this feels like communion; being fully aware of myself while also being with the liveness of the environment. It’s a wholistic approach to making meaning of the moment, in the moment. I love color, light, and atmosphere all of which vex and intrigue me, seduce me really. Every time I paint, I feel grateful to be a sentient being on this remarkable planet.