Emergency Break  2009

Best known for her wry representations of the animal world Malia Jensen gives every day objects the same treatment in her most recent exhibition Knee High to a Worm. Using fine materials such as hand made paper, bronze, and turned fir, Jensen wittily subverts the viewer’s expectations, elevating banal objects (such as light bulbs, bricks and pillows) and simultaneously removing their meaning by rendering useful objects useless. By engaging the viewer’s sense of humor, Jensen encourages her audience to see the beauty and the pathos in the mundane.

Malia Jensen received her BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in 1989. Her work has been exhibited at PICA (Portland, OR), the Melbourne International Arts Festival (Melbourne, Australia, and The New Museum (New York), among many others. In 1991 and 1998 she was featured in the Oregon Biennial, and her work is included in the Altoids Collection, an acclaimed traveling collection of emerging art. Jensen is represented by the Elizabeth Leach Gallery and is currently based in New York.