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Born in 1938 in Chicago, IL, United States


1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, Artist-in-Residence, The Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL

1982, M.F.A., School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1959, B.A. (Cum Laude), Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA


"With its capacity to create a convincing semblance of depth, volume, and texture while recoding objects that were in fact in front of the camera, photographs have a special ability to evoke the play of veracity and falsehood, reality and fiction. My work belongs in that genre of fabricated photographic images which engages these ideas of artificiality and constructedness.

I make photographs, I don't take them, I am a maker of meaning, not an observer of it. Looking at my photographs is like looking into a kaleidoscope that's been frozen still, or a prism that's been flattened. I achieve the effect by projecting slides onto props, which I set up in my studio. Then I photograph the resulting assemblage making a very layered image. Sometimes it takes weeks to produce just one.

My work is intellectually challenging because it's dense and complicated and layered. It's also challenging because it dishes up the past and explores issues difficult for many people to ponder: female identity, childhood experiences, love, gender and sexuality, mystery and menace.

At times I incorporate text appropriated from magazine ads, storybooks, or pulp romance and mystery novels into the images to discover how language and art either blend or compete as forms of communication. It interests me that when you put text in a picture, the verbal material changes the visual, and the visual changes the verbal. How you look at the things in the picture changes according to the text, and vice versa.

The fact that the objects and texts are 'found' (I do not make them or write them) is important to me. They reference the culture that produced them, and at the same time, allow both the artist and the viewer to ponder and redefine their meanings in a new context."

Jane Calvin, May 2000

  • Selected Solo Exhibitions
    • 2000: Ulrich Art Museum, Wichita, KS

    • 1999:
        Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN, Jane Calvin: Neon Dreams

        Tai Gallery, New York, NY

    • 1998:
        New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, New Harmony, IL

        Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IN

    • 1996: Clement Gallery, Center for the Visual Arts, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH

    • 1995:
        Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA

        Ezell Gallery, Chicago, IL

    • 1994: Robert Burge 20th Century Photographs, New York, NY

    • 1991: Merwin Gallery, Illinois Weslyan University, Bloomington, IL

    • 1990:
        Ehlers Caudill Gallery, Chicago, IL

        The Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA, Reflection, Recurrence, Rememory

    • 1988: The Orange Coast College Gallery of Photography, Costa Mesa, CA

    • 1986: Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL

    • 1984: Printworks LTD, Chicago, IL

    • 1983: Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL


  • Selected Group Exhibitions
    • 1999:
        The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI

        The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL

    • 1998:
        The Photographic Center, Skopelos, Greece, The Body

        Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN, Fotographs of Flowers

    • 1997:
        Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL, Scene of the Crime

        Niu Gallery, Chicago, IL, Addendum: More Chicago Artists

    • 1996:
        CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY, Chambers of Enchantment

        The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, The Midwest Photographers Project: Illinois Photography in the 1990s

    • 1995:
        Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI, Enigmas and Abstractions: Photographs from the Permanent Collection

        The Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, A Story Told: The Narrative Impulse in Contemporary Art

    • 1994:
        Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, Exquisite Drawing: Lines of Correspondence

        School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Camera Oscura, Oscura Camera

    • 1993:
        Isetan Museum, Fukuoka Museum, Hokkaido County Museum, Japan, American-Made: The New Still-Life

        The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, The Chicago Photographic Print Fair

    • 1992:
        Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee, WI, Chicago Light

        Gallery 2, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Amalgamations

    • 1991:
        Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO, Chicago Art Today

        Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, The Light Show

    • 1990:
        The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, European City of Culture Festival: Survey of Women in Photography in the U.S.

        Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, Midwest Photographers Project


    • The Polaroid International Collection, Cologne, Germany

    • The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

    • The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

    • The Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA

    • The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN

    • The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL

    • The University of Louisville, Louisville, KY

    • The Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL

    • Fine Arts Museum, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

    • Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA

    • Reader's Digest, New York, NY

    • Hermes, New York, NY

    • Deloitte and Touche, Chicago, IL

    • Third Eye Photowork Collection, Huntington Woods, MI

    • Ragir Foundation, Milwaukee, WI

    		•

    Selection of works from Jane Calvin

    Read the guestbook of Jane Calvin

    Sign the guestbook of Jane Calvin

    • 1999, Visual Artists Fellowship Grant, Illinois Arts Council

    • 1995: Regional Visual Artist Fellowship Award, Arts Midwest/NEA

    • 1992: CAAP Grant, Chicago Council on Fine Arts

    • 1990:
        Materials Grant, Polaroid Corporation

        Special Assistance Grant, Illinois Arts Council

    • 1989: CAAP Grant, Chicago Council of Fine Arts

    • 1987, 1986: Visual Artists Fellowship Grant, Illinois Arts Council

    • 1985: Purchase Award, Illinois Photographers 85, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL

    • 1984: Visual Artists Fellowship Grant, NEA

    • 1982: Traveling Fellowship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

    • 1980: Purchase Prize Award, New Photographics '80, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA

    • Ewing, William. Love & Desire. London: Thames & Hudson, 1999.

    • Rooks, Michael. Dialogue. 1999.

    • Weinstein, Michael. New City. 1999.

    • Lydersen, Karie. Streetwise. 1999.

    • Camper, Fred. The Chicago Reader. 1998.

    • Weinstein, Michael. The New Art Examiner. 1997.

    • Abigail Foerstner. The Chicago Tribune. 1997.

    • Huntington, Richard. The Buffalo News. 1996.

    • Foerstner, Abigail. Chicago Tribune. 1994.

    • Paine, Janice. Milwaukee Sentinel. 1992.

    • McCracken, David. Chicago Tribune. 1990.

    • Holg, Garrett. New Art Examiner. 1989.

    • Artner, Alan. Chicago Tribune. 1984.

    • Elliot, David. “Chicago is Enjoying its Own Eclecticism.” ArtNews. 1982.