artist biography

nicholas b jacobsen is a seventh-generation Utah-Mormon, a European American raised in the traditional homelands of the Nuwu.  They use self-critique in an effort to understand Whiteness, hetero-patriarchy, and human exceptionalism. They alter objects and imagery from their U.S., Mormon, and desert upbringing to highlight the parts of these histories that are often left out of the myths of U.S. American innocence and supremacy. 
They received an MFA in Art & Ecology from the University of New Mexico in 2020 and a BFA in ceramics/sculpture from Southern Utah University. jacobsen has received multiple awards including: scholarships and fellowships at UNM, Omaha Arts and Entertainment's "Best Emerging Artist" and "Best New Media Artist," has been recognized as one of Omaha's "Five Artists to Watch," and worked as an assistant to Jun Kaneko. Their works have been exhibited and collected throughout the U.S. They've been published in Things Organized Neatly, The Alibi, and the Omaha World Herald, and have an upcoming publication in collaboration with Nina Elder. Hear more about nicholas on the Aerogramme podcast "A Guide to Art, Activism, and Culture."

artist statement

I am an artist and researcher dedicated to unsettling settler-coloniality, being a witness to Whiteness, and mending the human/nature divide in dominant U.S. culture. This work emerges as an entanglement of installation, performance, video, ceramics, sculpture, text, and digital collage. My research is slow, embodied, and place-based, emphasizing the time and attention it takes to develop a lasting, visceral understanding of something. Through my work I want others to come away with an open, ongoing, multisensorial curiosity about themselves and the multiplicitous world that are submerged within.

In the mid-1800's, after repeatedly being forced out of their homes in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, my ancestors migrated across the Great Plains into the Great Basin. They then forced the Indigenous inhabitants between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas off of their ancestral hunting grounds, farming lands, and fishing waters. Over a hundred years later, I was raised near Navajo sandstone cliffs, the Virgin River, and the Pine Valley mountains in Nuwu (Southern Paiute) territory. After leaving Mormonism, this land is where I reformed my spirituality. I am in love with someone else's homeland. 

As I reckon with this personal and ancestral history, I must also reckon with an inherited ideological history. The Book of Mormon is said to be a record of ancient Christians in the Americas and claims that contemporary Indigenous peoples are among the descendants of a people cursed by God. Further, this book promises that when Indigenous peoples accept the Book of Mormon as their own history, they will become a pure/White people. This settler-colonial violence has become central to my work at the intersections of Mormonism, Whiteness, and American-ness.

curriculum vitae

nicholas b jacobsen
nicholas.b.jacobsen@gmail.com | nicholasbjacobsen.com | @nicholasbjacobsen

EDUCATION
University of New Mexico
M.F.A. Graduate Student                                             2017-2020
Art & Ecology

Southern Utah University
B.F.A in Studio Art                                                        2009-2012
Ceramics

Dixie State College 
Associate of Science                                                    2001-2009

EXHIBITIONS
2020
Center for Visual Arts | Wausau, WI
Roots: Uprooted
solo | Aerogramme | Online
from
Distant Ceramics | Online
Distant Ceramics, 1st Edition
solo | [AC]2 Gallery | Albuquerque, NM
from
Invitational | Garage Door Gallery | Incline Village, NV
a series of ricochets

2019
John Sommers Gallery | Albuquerque, NM
UMWELT
Invitational | UNM Art Museum | Albuquerque, NM
Emergent 2019    
Southern Utah Museum of Art | Cedar City, UT
Impact

2018
Patagonia Public Library | Patagonia, AZ
Bats without Borders       
CFA Downtown | Albuquerque, NM
Digital Disobedience 
Two-Person | John Sommers Gallery | Albuquerque, NM
in which they bathe with jellyfish        
Juried | UNM Art Museum | Albuquerque, NM
HereNOW 
                                                               
2017
CFA Downtown | Albuquerque, NM
At First Sight                                                                   

2016
KANEKO | Omaha, NE
OEAA Visual Art Nominee Showcase 

2015
Michael Phelps Gallery, W. Dale Clark Library | Omaha, NE
Public Public 
Petshop North Gallery | Omaha, NE
MIXTAPE 
Solo | Petshop Gallery | Omaha, NE
watching the ground  
Installation of works composed of various discarded materials from Kaneko Studio.
Solo | Project Project | Omaha, NE
reconsider 
Arranged remnants of a plumbing company, which once occupied the space, into an organized, imperfectly symmetrical installation
Centerylink Center | Omaha, NE
communication 

2014
Michael Phelps Gallery, W. Dale Clark Library | Omaha, NE
2014 Survey: Omaha Artists 
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts | Omaha, NE
Flock House Inhabitants 
Gallery 72 | Omaha, NE
Prospect 
Solo | Bemis Center for Contemporary Art | Flockhouse | Omaha, NE
flock house arranged  
Objects left for the inhabitants to use were neatly put into a pattern on the floor.
Solo | Outside | Omaha, NE
come with nothing, leave everything 
Discarded objects found and arranged in abandoned lot.
Gallery 72 | Omaha, NE
Gang of Five  

2013 
Sally D. Francisco Gallery | Peters Valley Craft Center | Layton, NJ
Riding the Wave: 30 years of Peters Valley Anagama 

2012 
Solo | The Grind | Cedar City, UT
free to a good home 
Pottery completed post-baccalaureate stay at Southern Utah University
Braithwaite Gallery | Southern Utah University | Cedar City, UT
B.F.A. Exhibition 
Braithwaite Gallery | Southern Utah University | Cedar City, UT
Earth Day 

2011
Sally D. Francisco Gallery | Peters Valley Craft Center | Layton, NJ
Faculty and Assistant Exhibition 
Moscow Clay Works | Scranton, PA
Unabridged 

2010 
Rogue Gallery | Cedar City, UT
Debut 
 
2009
Braithwaite Gallery | Southern Utah University | Cedar City, UT
Student Exhibition 

ARTICLES | REVIEWS
Zoe Moldenhauer | "Episode 2: Family, Mormonism, and Whiteness
Aerogramme Podcast | July 2020 | www.aerogramme.org/podcast/episode-1

Maggie Grimason | "New Geology"
Alibi | April 2018 | www.alibi.com/art/55495/New-Geology

Michael J. Krainak | "ExtrA! ExtrA!"
The Reader | January 2016 | www.thereader.com/story/extra_extra

Casey Logan | "Art notes..."
Omaha World Herald | September 2015 | http://www.omaha.com/go/art-notes-
petshop-exhibit-features-artist-s-arrangements-of-found/article_82a20732-3727
-5500-9710-9e467047ff5f.html

​Kim Carpenter | "Five to Watch"
Inspired Living Omaha | September-October 2015 | p. 50-51

Austin Radcliffe | Nicholas Jacobsen, Reconsider, at Project Project
Things Organized Neatly | Blog | 2015 | thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com

AWARDS | HONORS

2020
Amaco Award | Distant Ceramics

2019
Fellowship | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Scholarship | Phyllis Muth Fine Arts Scholarship
Scholarship | John L. Knight Memorial Scholarship 

2018
Scholarship | Phyllis Muth Fine Arts Scholarship
Scholarship | Fred & Rose Ellen Calkins Scholarship

2017
Fellowship | Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

2015
Best New Media Artist | Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards
Best Emerging Artist | Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards

2012
Excellence Award | Southern Utah University

RELATED EXPERIENCE
ABQ SURJ| Albuquerque, NM
Organizer | 2020-Current
Paper Turtle | Albuquerque, NM
Ceramist | 2020-Current
University of New Mexico | Albuquerque, NM
Researcher / Ceramics Instructor | 2019-Current
Surface and Architecture Workshop | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Plasterer and Fabricator | 2016 - 2017
Jun Kaneko Studio | Omaha, Nebraska
Artist’s Assistant | 2012 - 2015
Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts | Maplecrest, NY
Teaching Assistant | Summer 2012
Southern Utah University | Cedar City, Utah
Teaching Assistant | 2010 - 2012
Peter’s Valley Craft Center | Layton, New Jersey
Studio Assistant | Summer 2011