Jen Davis

b. 1978, Akron Ohio

Lives and works in New York City
jendavisphoto.com

Education 2008 MFA Photography. Yale University School of Art

2002 BFA Photography. Columbia College Chicago

Grants and Awards 2014 Arnold Newman Foundation Award Nominee

2013 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
2012 Jury’s Choice 2012 Prix Virginia
2011 First prize award in “Forward Facing” at Forward Thinking Museum, New York, NY
Paul Huf Award Nominee
Light Work Artist-in-Residence
2010 Lacoste Elysee Prize
2008 Leeds Marwell Photography Scholarship
2007 Yale Norfolk Summer School in Art Teaching Assistantship
2004 Illinois National Museum of Women in the Arts Grant
Illinois Arts Council Special Assistance Grant
Joyce Elaine Grant Exhibition
2003 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award
Community Arts Assistance Program Grant through The Department of Cultural Affairs
2002 Creativity with a Conscience
Albert P. Weisman Memorial Scholarship
2001 Albert P. Weisman Memorial Scholarship

Solo Exhibitions 2016 Identity, Self Portraits by Jen Davis, FotoFocus Biennial, Fifth Street Gallery, Dayton, OH
2014 Jen Davis - Eleven Years, LSA Institute for the Humanities at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Jen Davis - Eleven Years, ClampArt, New York, NY
2013 Jen Davis - Self Portraits, Galerie ENTRE, Paris, France
Body Time, Viborg Kunsthal, Viborg, Denmark
2009 Jen Davis: New Photographs, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN
2005 Self-Image, Photo Passage at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada
Jen Davis: Recent Photographs, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX
2004 Jen Davis: Body Image, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL

Selected Group 2017 Picturing Family, Green Gallery of Yale University’s School of Art, New Haven, CT
Exhibitions 2016 Flesh, York Art Gallery, York, UK
Dwelling, Susan Eley Fine Art, New York, NY
2015 80 Days of Summer: Stories of Identity, International Photo Festival Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
Arts & Food: Expo Milano 2015, Pavilion at La Triennale di Milano, Milano, Italy
Personalities, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
2014 The Play and Staging of the Self: Five Photographers on Identity, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery, New York, NY
Clash - Counterculture in Fashion, Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark
Invitation to Stare: Photographic Portraits, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2013 Male Nudes - Female Desires, Tanja Wagner Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Self, Model, and Self as Other, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
2012 The Youth Code curated by Natalie Herschdorfer, Daegu Photo Biennial, Daegu, Korea
untitled no. 2, Randall Scott Projects, Washington, DC
Fokus Frau (Focusing on Women), Gallery of Design in the University of Applied Science and Art, Dortmund, Germany
Gazed Upon, Ampersand Gallery, Portland, OR
Looking & Looking: Amy Elkins and Jen Davis, Light Work Gallery, Syracuse, NY


Under Cover, Decker Gallery at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MA
2011 Mine, Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina, Kosova
About Face, Gallery 339, Philadelphia, PA
Beauty, Humor and Social Justice: Gifts from Joan Morgenstern, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Fleeting Glimpse: Reflections in Modern and Contemporary Photography from the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
reGeneration 2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today (traveling exhibition): Aperture Gallery,
New York, NY; Preus Museum, Horten, Norway; Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2010 The Fleeting Glimpse: Selections in Modern and Contemporary Photography
from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA
She: in her teens and twenties, University Art Gallery of San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
14th Annual Quinzaine Photographique Nantaise, Le Temple du Goût, Nantes, France
Domestic, Espai Cultural Caja Madrid, Barcelona, Spain
reGeneration 2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today (traveling exhibition): Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne;
Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town; Pingyao International Photography Festival, China;
Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan; Centre Gallery, Miami Dade College, Miami
The Naked Truth, Hous Projects, New York, NY
Global Photography: Looking at | looking for, Galleria Contemporaneo, Venice, Italy
PQ: 100, The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Going from Nowhere: Accumulated Images, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA
Versus, Hous Projects, New York, NY
2009 Global Photography: Looking at | looking for, SIFEST 2009 - Photo Festival of Savignano, Italy
Hall of Mirrors, Northlight Gallery, Tempe, AZ
Women, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne, Germany
Yesterday & Tomorrow: Issues in Contemporary Photography, Ruschman Art Gallery, Indianapolis, IN
NYMPHOTO Presents, Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Photographic Figures, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Made In Chicago: Photographs from the LaSalle Bank Collection, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Unmasked & Anonymous, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Yale MFA Photography 2008, (Traveling Show) Yale University Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, CT
Danziger Projects, New York, NY, Gallery 339, Philadelphia, PA
2007 The Female Gaze, Weber State University, Ogden, UT
A New American Portrait, Jen Bekman Gallery, New York, NY
Relative Closeness, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
On the Wall-Aperture Magazine ‘05-’06, Aperture Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Passionate Attitudes, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Domestic Diaries, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
Those Who Do, Teach, Marwen Foundation, Chicago, IL
New Trends In Chicago Photography, Version Fest, Chicago, IL
2005 The Chicago Project, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004 Who Makes Self-Portraits in 2004?, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL
Identifying Marks: Contemporary Portraits, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX
17th Evanston + Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Arts Center, Evanston, IL
Self-Exposed, Daiter Contemporary, Chicago, IL
Soliloquies, John R. Grady Gallery of Photographic Art, Elgin, IL
Joyce Grant Photography Exhibition, Texas Woman’s University Fine Arts Gallery, Denton, TX
2003 Self-Centered, Creative Artist Network, Philadelphia, PA
As Seen, Moser Gallery at University of Saint Francis, Joliet, IL

Selected Publications
and Press
2016 “Public/Private/Portrait,” Mossless 4
“Women Looking at Women,” Raw View #7
2015 “Exhibitionism,” Secret Behavior, Issue 3, Spring
“Jen Davis,” VON Magazine, Vol. 31, January
2014 “Our Top 11 Photo Books of 2014,” The New York Times Magazine, December
“Our Seven Favorite Photography Shows From 2014,” Slate, December
“FlakPhoto Books of the Year 2014,” FlakPhoto, December
“The 17 Best Photobooks of the Year,” Humble Arts Foundation, December
“Self-Portraits,” STILL, Issue No. 3, November


“Jen Davis, intimate Self-Portraits of an overweight woman,” Madame, November
Jen Davis “Goings On About Town,” The New Yorker, June
“Eleven Years of Self-Scrutiny,” New Republic, June
“Body Image Is Front and Center,” Slate, May
“Eleven Years,” Wall Street International, May
Jen Davis: Eleven Years monograph, Published by Kehrer Verlag (Germany)
“Seeing Themselves: Photographers’ Self-Portraits,” The New Yorker, Photo Booth, February
2013 “Jen Davis: Self Portraits Spotlight Plus Size Body Image,” The Huffington Post, April
“In Revealing Self-Portraits, Body Image is Front and Center,” Slate, April
“Jen Davis Interview: The Skin I Was In,” The Telegraph, March
2012 “Exposed,” Marie Claire: The Body Issue, November
“Contact Sheet: The Light Work Annual 2012,” Light Work Foundation
“Coming into Focus,” by Diana Spechler, O Magazine, September
“Seeing Yourself as Others Do,” The New York Times Lensblog, April
“On Fashion and Shame,” Vestoj, Issue 3
“Contact Sheet: Looking & Looking,” Light Work Foundation
“Gazed Upon,” Published by Ampersand, Portland, OR
“The Fat Trap,” New York Times Sunday Magazine
2011 “Le Portfolio Auto Portraits XXL,” Le Monde Magazine, No 98, July
“The Conflict Issue,” Gup Magazine 028
“Self-Portraits,” Blow Magazine, issue three
“Zelfportret,” LINDA Magazine, Issue 80, April
2010 “Plus-Size Wars,” New York Times Sunday Magazine
“ reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today,” Published by Thames & Hudson
2009 “The way we live now,” New York Times Sunday Magazine
2008 “Yale Graduate Photography 2008,” Published by Yale University Press
2007 “Women Seeing Women,” Photography Quarterly, no. 94
2006 “Portfolio of Nine Photographs,” Zoom International, November/December Issue
“The Modern Self,” PDN, August
“Jen Davis: Body Image,” Aperture, Issue 182, Spring
2005 “Sex TV,” Jen Davis, Episode 8-5
“Liberation,” Hors-Serie 2005 Photographie, Images d’inactualite
“Contact Magazine,” Feature Exhibitions
2004 “Body Image And Catharsis Co-Exist In This Exhibit,” Chicago Tribune
“Self-Exposed,” Catalog, Karen Irvine
“Forum Section,” Camera Austria, Issue 85, March
2003 “My Boby/Your Body,” 6x6 Series, Columbia College Publishing

Lectures 2016 Yale University Scjool of Art, New Haven, CT

and Visiting Artist Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Purchase College, Purchase NY
MassArt, Boston, MA
Panel Discussion: Food and Body, Il Tempo delle Donne, Milano, IT
2015 Denison University, Granville, OH
2014 LSA Institute for the Humanities at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga, Latvia
Rundum Project Space, Tallinn, Estonia
The Nude Portrait and the Nude Self-Portrait: The Psychology of Exposure Panel at SVA, New York, NY
i3 Lecture Series, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Pratt Photography Lecture Series, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Information Lecture Series, Copenhagen, Denmark
Photographic Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
Dok 13 International Photography Festival, Fredrikstad, Norway
The Photographers Lecture Series at The International Center for Photography, New York, NY
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, CO
2012 Maine College of Art, Portland, MA
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Parsons, New York, NY
2011 Bidwell Artist-in-Residence at the University of Akron and Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH

Picturing the Self: Jen Davis and Pierre Cassou-Nogues In Conversation, Aperture Foundation, NYC
2010 San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
The Fleeting Glimpse key note speaker, Roanoke, VA
Cooper Union, New York, NY
2009 University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK
East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
2008 Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, New York, NY
2006 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL
2004 Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX
2003 University of Saint Francis, Joliet, IL

Collections Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH

Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL
The Sir Elton John Photography Collection, Atlanta, GA
LaSalle National Bank Photography Collection, Chicago, IL
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Photographic Archives, University of Louisville, KY
Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA