JC Lenochan

the beginning of something else

Discarded books with concrete

"The work is a series of questions regarding the acquisition of knowledge, in terms of how information is distributed, disseminated, and discarded, through the process of deconstructing objects and de-circulating/decoding institutional relics, reconfiguring these commodities the way I think they should be viewed as an initiative to art’s transformative function.

Everything we see has the potential to become inexplicably something else in terms of social justice and trans-pedagogy, wherein concepts dictate materials and process. Thinking and re-thinking possibilities through critical discourse in the canon of art history to create a new way of seeing the world as a new human in undoing whiteness."

— JC Lenochan

About the artist

JC Lenochan

jc lenochan is a multi-disciplinary artist who combines drawing, sculpture, performance and installation. His practice works to critique academic pedagogy as a means of Socratic questioning of the acquisition of knowledge in terms of racial fabrications, perceptions of otherness, and cultural value. He is committed to creating critical transformational experiences for the public through conceptually- based projects and social sculptures that involve heavy input and ideas from local youth in specific communities. These projects include a series of lectures on “art and education being synonymous” as the art of listening. He was recently invited by the White House to lecture on juvenile justice, and is currently working with high school students to create dialogues around justice.

lenochan received his MFA from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of Art in 1996, and attended Skowhegan School of painting and sculpture in 2001. Recent solo exhibitions include Unfinished Business: Gettin’ School’d at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT, and Decolonizing the Mind at the Arc Gallery in Chicago. His work has also been presented in numerous group shows such as The Young Lords at El Museo del Barrio in New York City, Respond at Smackmellon in Brooklyn, NY, Smash and Grab at the Locust Projects in Miami, FL, and Ready or Not at theNewark Museum in Newark, NJ. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, such as: the Real Art Ways ‘Step Up Artist’ (2014), Artist In Residence at the Fountainhead Residence (2014), SIP Robert Blackburn Fellowship (2013), Franklin Furnace Grant (2011-2012), Newark Museum Artist In Residence (2011). His work is in numerous collections, including the permanent collections of the Delaware Art Museum and the Newark Museum.