MONTGOMERY, AL.- The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts announces the appointment of Jennifer Jankauskas to Curator of Art. Jankauskas has held posts as both an independent and institutional curator, most recently at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She began at the MMFA November 14, 2011.
"At the MMFA, Jennifer will bring her knowledge of contemporary artists and trends to initiate and shape innovative exhibitions. Her expertise and recommendations will aid in future acquisitions for the permanent collection" said Mark Johnson, MMFA Director. He added, "We are also looking forward to the broad range of exhibitions Jennifer will organize in conjunction with the museums outstanding collection of 19th and 20th-century American paintings and sculpture, Southern regional art, Old Master prints and decorative arts."
In her position as Associate Curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Jankauskas curated 19 exhibitions including expansive group exhibitions such as Intersections: Shifting Identity in Contemporary Art, Stretching the Truth, All Over the Map, and A Torrent of Words: Contemporary Art and Language; along with solo exhibitions focusing on emerging and mid-career artists such as Delia Brown, Joe Fig, Michael Veliquette and Kehinde Wiley. Additionally, she contributed essays to the publication American Story and worked with the Arts Centers collection of works of art stemming from their renowned Arts/Industry Residency Program.
Prior to joining JMKAC, Jankauskas curated exhibitions along with organizing panel discussions, symposia, and film and video series while working for various museums, galleries and art spaces including the Art Institute of Chicago, Pace MacGill Gallery, NY, the American Federation of Arts, NY, and Artpace, San Antonio, TX. Furthermore, as an independent curator she organized many exhibitions along with writing criticism and reviews for various online and print art journals including Glasstire and ArtLies. Jankauskas earned a BFA in art history at Ohio University and an MA in art history, theory, and criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in museum studies from the University of Leicester (UK) with a focus on how art museums, especially regional and small to mid-sized American museums that have a focus on contemporary art, fit into the social networks and market structures of the global art world and how their position impacts their ability to both collect and organize exhibitions.