Jen Aitken makes sculptures that combine perceptual ambiguity with structural clarity. She uses common industrial materials to create unidentifiable forms. She follows strict geometric parameters, or takes a loose improvisational approach, either way arriving at a careful grammar. She creates abstract component parts and arranges them into whole forms, emphasizing how they fit together. Meaning emerges through repeated shapes and gestures, and through architectural and art historical references. Certainty remains just out of reach. Aitken sees her work in a constant state of almost—almost familiar, almost architectural, almost figurative, almost functional. Her practice is rooted in the idea that understanding is not an end point but a durational process that will always be in flux.
Jen Aitken is based in Toronto, Canada. She completed her MFA in 2014 at the University of Guelph, Ontario, and her BFA in 2010 at Emily Carr University, Vancouver. Aitken was featured in the 2020 Women to Watch exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. She presented her first institutional solo show at The Power Plant, Toronto in 2023, titled The Same Thing Looks Different, which was accompanied by an extensive exhibition catalogue. Her first large-scale public sculpture was installed at the new headquarters of the National Bank of Canada, Montreal, in 2023. Aitken’s work is in public collections across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
Jen Aitken’s residency at NARS is made possible by Canada Council for the Arts.
