Jennie Lea Knight

Jennie Lea Knight

Jennie Lea Knight: Women of Jefferson Place Gallery

Exhibition Dates: January 17 – March 7, 2020

Curated by John Anderson, Meaghan Kent and Caitlin Berry

Cody Gallery at Marymount University is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Jennie Lea Knight (b. Washington, D.C. 1933; d. Washington, D.C. 2007). This exhibition will run from January 17 to March 7, 2020 and will open with a reception on Friday, January 17 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. This exhibition includes a minimalist grouping of sculpture.

Jennie Lea Knight

Jennie Lea Knight
Jennie Lea Knight co-founded The Studio Gallery, then located in Alexandria, VA, with her mother in 1956. By 1964, a year after the death of her mother, Knight joined the artists at the Jefferson Place Gallery, then under the direction of Nesta Dorrance, where she frequently exhibited in solo and group shows until the gallery’s closing in 1974.

The Cody Gallery will present a body of sculpture by Jennie Lea Knight that is best described as minimal in form, but not in process. At times stretching up to 9 feet in length, these wood sculptures show a mastery of precision in joinery and shaping coupled with a fastidiousness of craft.

Jennie Lea Knight

Jennie Lea Knight was born in Washington, D.C. in 1933 and passed away in 2007. She received her art training in design and music at the King-Smith School of Creative Arts and later graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1951, where she studied painting with Kenneth Noland. By 1964, Knight worked almost entirely in sculpture, working occasionally on paper and canvas. Knight’s work can be found in many private collections and public institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

This exhibition is the third in the series “Women of Jefferson Place Gallery” and has been organized by John Anderson, Caitlin Berry, Director of Cody Gallery, and Meaghan Kent, Curator of Exhibitions, Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, Florida. Previous exhibitions in this series include “Hilda Shapiro Thorpe” and “Mary Orwen”.  John Anderson is an independent curator and writer. His research into the archives of Alice Denney and Jefferson Place Gallery culminated in the exhibition, “Making a Scene: The Jefferson Place Gallery” at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in 2017. A catalogue accompanied the exhibition. In addition, he has written several catalogue essays including “Seen and Unseen: Public Artworks by Sam Gilliam and Rockne Krebs,” Washington Studio School, and “Phyllis Plattner,” The American University Museum. Anderson is a contributor to Washington City Paper and re:sculpt.

“Women of Jefferson Place Gallery” has been organized by Caitlin Berry, Director of the Cody Gallery, Meaghan Kent, Curator of Exhibitions, Arts and Culture Center / Hollywood, Florida, and John Anderson. John Anderson is an independent curator and writer. His research into the archives of Alice Denney and Jefferson Place Gallery culminated in the exhibition, “Making a Scene: The Jefferson Place Gallery” at American University Museum in 2017. A catalogue accompanied the exhibition. In addition, he has written several catalogue essays including “Seen and Unseen: Public Artworks by Sam Gilliam and Rockne Krebs,” Washington Studio School, and “Phyllis Plattner,” The American University Museum. Anderson is a contributor to Washington City Paper and re:sculpt.

This exhibition was reviewed in the Washington Post and Washington City Paper.

Our great thanks to the lenders of the exhibition: Anne and Blaine Larson and the Larson family.

Cody Gallery of Marymount University is located at 1000 North Glebe Road, 2nd Floor. Street parking and Capital Bikeshare are available. The gallery is located near the Metroline Orange: Ballston-MU.

Image: Jennie Lea Knight, Sonny’s Pasteur Evening, n.d., wood, 14″ x 87″, Courtesy of the Larson Collection, Image by Rachel Pearl