Art Convo with Kendra Jayne Patrick: The Aesthetics, Scholarship, and Pleasures that Propel her Gallery Forward

Photo by Genevieve Hanson. Courtesy Kendra Jayne Patrick.

A captivating conversation with Kendra Jayne Patrick (she/her), founder of her eponymous gallery Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick, . She shares the simple pleasures that keep her sane, and helming an art enterprise during these unpredictable and spontaneous times.

How are you feeling at this moment?

Grateful. We’ve all just come through this hard, dark time, and it’s intense, this transition back into “normal.” Spending a few months back in New York after over a year away has been energizing for so many reasons, but being with loved ones after so long without hugs and dinners and happy hours has me feeling really restored. 

What are some self-care rituals that keep you whole? 

Hmmm… I would say that pilates, homemade fried chicken, and strolling around New York on hot summer days are keeping me sane. When I’m in Switzerland, it’s long hikes with Harley, my friend’s Great Dane, and swimming in the rivers. And vegetable gardening! 

Qualeasha Wood, The [Black] Madonna/Whore Complex, 2021. Cotton jacquard weave, glass beads. Courtesy Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick.

Can you briefly talk about the genesis of Kendra Jayne Patrick? How and why did you establish your gallery?

I think adventure, scholarship, and the pleasure of looking really govern the programming and ethos at Kendra Jayne Patrick. Those elements nexus in the program’s itinerant model, which I’ve operated from spare spaces within established New York art galleries. At its baseline, this means that every show is a new frontier, a new context to reckon with, a new set of reasons for exhibiting, and this invigorates the program with a certain forward-facing energy.

I started the gallery because I want to contribute to ideas about what contemporary art and aesthetic theory can be, now. If consensus says that a certain method or material is important, I immediately want to explore that import; to test it, to find out how these ideas hold up when they’re run through a different cultural context, or subjected to criticism. Having an art gallery allowed me to be involved in the interpretation of art in a meaningful way. 

“I started the gallery because I want to contribute to ideas about what contemporary art and aesthetic theory can be, now.”

Work and installation view from Jo Shane’s April 2019 solo exhibition with the gallery, Jo Shane: Sculptural Selections 1990-Present, Kendra Jayne Patrick at Johannes Vogt. Courtesy Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick.

David-Jeremiah, Hamborghini Rally: Soul Hunt City (’72 Dartón), 2019. Enamel, mixed media. manila rope, plastic, hand cuffs on wood panel.

David-Jeremiah, Hamborghini Rally: Soul Hunt City (’83 Bikees), 2019. Enamel, mixed media. manila rope, plastic, detached prison razor wire on wood panel.

From David-Jeremiah’s January 2021 solo exhibition with the gallery, PLAY; Kendra Jayne Patrick at Halsey McKay Gallery. Photo by Ryan Wallace. Courtesy Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick.

What are some art world predictions for 2021 and the near future? Specifically with Black artists and Black gallerists?

It seems we’re living in the least predictable time I can remember, so I suspect we’ll see a lot of experimental art and exhibition making over the next year, and more innovative toggling between virtual and IRL art experiences. As this applies to Black artists, gallerists, and collectors, I would like to see more scholarship around and acquisition of digital art. The last fifteen years on social media have evolved so that American Blackness - AAVE/Ebonics, cultural practices, comedic attitudes, modes of communication, dance, etc etc etc etc etc - formulate the very syntax of these highly visual spaces. Black aesthetic innovation in this time period has been monumental, and I would hate to see digital and internet art go unexamined in conversations about contemporary art simply because they aren’t paintings.

“Black aesthetic innovation in this time period has been monumental, and I would hate to see digital and internet art go unexamined in conversations about contemporary art simply because they aren’t paintings.”

Wall: Tatiana Kronberg; Ball Lightning II, 2018, Ball Lightning III, 2018, Ball Lightning I, 2018. All chromogenic photograms, 2x4-inch wood beams, magnets.

Floor: Anu Vahtra; On Display I, 2018. Skylight & its accompanying metal structure, scrap metal, scrap wood, fire extinguisher, cleaning solutions, paint. Courtesy Gallery Kendra Jayne Patrick.

What's next in 2021?

2021 is going to be full on! We are looking forward to solo projects with Wickerham & Lomax, Arden Surdam, André Magaña, Qualeasha Wood, Amanda Friedman, and Kenya (Robinson), along with some other surprising presentations. The most immediate of these is a collaboration between artists Clark Filio, Ernst Fischer, and founding member of the German artist pension Guernot Bubenik about twentieth and twenty-first century art and activism.