artist biography
nicholas b jacobsen is a research-based artist concentrating on assumptions about the natural world and our relationships with and place within it. They are a seventh-generation Utah-Mormon, a Euro-American raised in the traditional homelands of the Nuwu (Southern Paiutes), near the Pine Valley Mountains and Virgin River in Southwestern Utah. jacobsen’s work explores their personal and ancestral connections to settler-colonialism, hetero-patriarchy, human-exceptionalism, Whiteness, and Mormonism via performance, video, installation, digital collage, and found-object sculpture. Through vulnerability and deeply personal narratives they hope to unsettle the foundational myths of their upbringing and bring awareness to histories that are often ignored in our dominant culture.
They are currently completing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Art & Ecology at the University of New Mexico (UNM). 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 are currently completing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Art & Ecology at the University of New Mexico (UNM). 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.
artist statement
I am an artist and researcher seeking to unsettle my foundational assumptions about the natural world and my place within it. I connect these assumptions to ideologies about the supposed naturalness of human exceptionalism, masculinity, white supremacy, and capitalism–the foundations of U.S. culture. This work emerges as an entanglement of installation, performance, video, 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 themself and the multiplicitous world that are submerged within.
I am an eighth-generation Utahn, a Danish-British-Scottish-Welsh-U.S. American, and a child of Mormons. 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.
I am an eighth-generation Utahn, a Danish-British-Scottish-Welsh-U.S. American, and a child of Mormons. 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-Current
Art & Ecology
Southern Utah University
B.F.A in Studio Art 2009-2012
Ceramics
Dixie State College
Associate of Science 2001-2009
EXHIBITIONS
2020
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
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
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
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
nicholas.b.jacobsen@gmail.com | nicholasbjacobsen.com | @nicholasbjacobsen
EDUCATION
University of New Mexico
M.F.A. Graduate Student 2017-Current
Art & Ecology
Southern Utah University
B.F.A in Studio Art 2009-2012
Ceramics
Dixie State College
Associate of Science 2001-2009
EXHIBITIONS
2020
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
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
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
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
