Alum Jessica Wohl Commissioned by NY Times

The Lamar Dodd School of Art is pleased to share that MFA alum Jessica Wohl (2010) was commissioned by the NY Times to create artwork that accompanied a recent essay. Wohl created pieces inspired by the artists mentioned in the essay, “The Shadows”. The artists she referenced include David Hammonds, Lee Bontecou, Cady Noland, Laurie Parsons, Thomas Pynchon, and Martin Margiela. 

Jessica Wohl is a mixed media artist based in Sewanee, Tennessee whose sprawling installations, obsessively detailed ink drawings, and sewn portraits are largely inspired by contemporary suburban life. Wohl is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenneesee. 

Learn more about the work Wohl created and read the NY Times essay here. 

Image above: The snowballs that blanket this family portrait are a reference to the artist DAVID HAMMONS’s ephemeral 1983 piece “Bliz-aard Ball Sale,” in which he sold snowballs on the streets of New York City. The frame is an interpretation of his “African American Flag,” which Hammons created in 1990, replacing the flag’s traditional red, white and blue with the black, red and green of Marcus Garvey’s Pan-African flag. Artwork by Jessica Wohl. Photographed by Weichia Huang. Source photograph: Stockbyte/Getty

Across these three family photographs, a tree and a bench are a nod to the work of the artist LAURIE PARSONS; V-2 rockets and bananas are images found in THOMAS PYNCHON’s 1973 novel, “Gravity’s Rainbow”; and a pair of Tabi shoes (inspired by traditional Japanese split-toed socks) reference those originally designed by MARTIN MARGIELA in 1989. Artwork by Jessica Wohl. Photographed by Weichia Huang. Source photographs, from left: Classicstock/Akg-images/H. Armstrong Roberts; Superstock/Everett Collection; Mirrorpix/Topfoto