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Jennifer Colten



Jennifer Colten’s work focuses on ambiguous landscapes, social spaces, and cultural geographies exploring sites at the margins of the urban environment, and spaces that reveal a resilience of ecological transformation. Central concerns within her photographic practice reflect questions surrounding the representation of landscape, and examine multiple issues revealing social, cultural, and environmental implications of land use.

Colten has received a number of selective grants to support the development of ongoing projects. The include a Mid-America Arts Alliance grant, the Ferguson Academic Seed Grant, and two Artist Support Grants from the Regional Arts Commission in St Louis.

In addition to private collections, Colten’s photographs have been included in a number of national and international institutions. The Denver Art Museum; Olin Special Collections at Washington University in St. Louis; The Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna; the Museum für Fotografie, Braunschweig, Germany; Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota; Museo de Antioquia and Bellas Artes Institute, both in Medellín, Colombia; and the Centro Colombo Americano Institutions in Medellín and Periera Colombia, South America.

Personal website

Work by Jennifer Colten

A mountain/hill/mound obscured by spindly trees in the foreground. The sky is gray-blue with overcast.

Mound [6135], 2020

from the ongoing project Significant & Insignificant Mounds.
A mound with patches of green grass here and there; beyond it are a shed/buildings and several bare trees.

Mound [6330], 2016

from the ongoing project Significant & Insignificant Mounds.
Beyond two golden mounds/hilltops, the sign "Shop 'n Save" in a red calligraphic brush font, on the façade of an obscured storefront, centered in the photograph. The sky is a light blue, the clouds washed away.

Mound [3297], 2017

from the ongoing project Significant & Insignificant Mounds.
A light-hued fence along the side of a house: a rectangular portion is a darker brown, in front of which on the ground is a hand-lettered sign that reads, "INDIAN MOUND MOTEL" — "ALL NEW ROOMS." The sky is white and the grass on which the sign rests is green-brown.

Mound [4005], 2018

from the ongoing project Significant & Insignificant Mounds.
A large structure wrapped in black material, behind bushes of yellowed grass. The background is a light blue-white sky.

Mound [7791], 2018

from the ongoing project Significant & Insignificant Mounds.
10 slaminstall.2493

Documentation, Saint Louis Art Museum, Art Along the Rivers exhibition, 2021

From Significant & Insignificant Mounds
02 mound.6909

Mound [6909], Significant & Insignificant Mounds, 2018

03 mound.ab.3297

Mound [3297], Significant & Insignificant Mounds, 2018

05 tower.1695 (1)

Tower. 1695, Standard of Repose, 2019

04 ab.5225

AB. 5225, The American Bottom, 2022

06tower.1634 (2)

Tower. 1634, Standard of Repose, 2019

07 blr.8447

BLR. 8447, Between the Levee and the River, 2021

08 blr.3560

BLR. 3560, Between the Levee and the River, 2022

09 doublepresence.estl.9363

Documentation, Billboard, Double Presence

From Significant & Insignificant Mounds, 2021/2022