SEATTLE -- DRIFT is a showing of ceramic sculpture by Virginia Jenkins that marks the culmination of her two-year residency at Pottery Northwest. For this exhibit, Virginia has focused on abstract interpretations of boat vessels as her subject. She finds beauty in their appeal as objects and their role as couriers of goods, ideas, and cultures. The work is an exploration of the numerous stories they tell about our society.

Virginia's sculpture represents a convergence between existing and imagined realities inspired by the potential of the undiscovered life in our oceans. Through the use of iconographies drawn from the natural world found in our coastal environments, and subtle allusions to the human body, she creates objects that suggest an esoteric existence. The objects become their own biological entities with their own spirituality and provoke the experience of an independent, symbolic world.

Virginia received a B.F.A. in Ceramics from East Tennessee State University and an M.F.A from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She has undertaken Artist Residencies at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, The Mendocino Art Center in California, and The Sages housed by the Inn at Sunrise Springs in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and The Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. She has also produced projects commissioned by Monsanto Corporation and the William Kerr Foundation while acting as lead artist and mentor to inner city youth apprentices.

Virginia has been published in one of the ceramic field's top magazines, Ceramics Monthly. Her work has been exhibited nationally in both juried and invitational settings. She has also been the recipient of many awards including a grant from Artist Trust this year.


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