Collection:
Jazz Keillor
Jazz Keillor
As a life-long city dweller, I understand all to well the lure of wild spaces: The sense of respite from the rigors and structures of daily life, the meditative power of working with one’s hands to fulfill the needs we normally take for granted, and the sense of camaraderie fostered around the light of a blazing fire. Yet present-day interactions with the land are complex, and deeply entangled within larger colonial and capitalistic constructs.
My most recent body of work, titled “Staging the Wild”, present a visual investigation into the Canadian myth of the great outdoors. My fictional, often absurd, compositions present humorous and quietly harrowing scenarios that fictionalize, exaggerate, and parody the visual and structural systems employed within contemporary sites of outdoor recreation. I employ playfully cropped and colorfully rendered compositions to bring into question what must be revealed or concealed in order to maintain the urban customer’s fantasy of rugged nature, while maintaining the comforts of home. Viewers are invited to reflect on the tensions that exist between how outdoor experiences bring a sense of joy, and the contradictory frameworks that have paved the way for this enjoyment.
Currently based in Kjipuktuk / Halifax, Nova Scotia., Jazz Keillor recently graduated with an MFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, class of 2023. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick with a major in painting and sculpture and a minor in art history. Upon graduating in 2015, she was chosen as the New Brunswick provincial winner of the BMO 1st Art Invitational Student Art Competition. Keillor has been a recipient of a PRESENT grant from Arts Nova Scotia (2023), an SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship (2021), an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2021), a Canada Council travel grant (2021) and Explore and Create Project grant (2020), and an Alberta Foundation for the Arts individual project grant (2019). Her work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in New Brunswick, British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia.
My most recent body of work, titled “Staging the Wild”, present a visual investigation into the Canadian myth of the great outdoors. My fictional, often absurd, compositions present humorous and quietly harrowing scenarios that fictionalize, exaggerate, and parody the visual and structural systems employed within contemporary sites of outdoor recreation. I employ playfully cropped and colorfully rendered compositions to bring into question what must be revealed or concealed in order to maintain the urban customer’s fantasy of rugged nature, while maintaining the comforts of home. Viewers are invited to reflect on the tensions that exist between how outdoor experiences bring a sense of joy, and the contradictory frameworks that have paved the way for this enjoyment.
Currently based in Kjipuktuk / Halifax, Nova Scotia., Jazz Keillor recently graduated with an MFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, class of 2023. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, New Brunswick with a major in painting and sculpture and a minor in art history. Upon graduating in 2015, she was chosen as the New Brunswick provincial winner of the BMO 1st Art Invitational Student Art Competition. Keillor has been a recipient of a PRESENT grant from Arts Nova Scotia (2023), an SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship (2021), an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2021), a Canada Council travel grant (2021) and Explore and Create Project grant (2020), and an Alberta Foundation for the Arts individual project grant (2019). Her work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in New Brunswick, British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia.