Jen Chilstrom is an artist and ecofeminist born on the ancestral homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe people in Minnesota. She received a master’s from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is the co-founder of BOX Gallery, located in Merida, Yucatan. She has been exhibited nationally and internationally including by the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, School of Visual Arts in NYC, Textile Center, and the American Craft Council.

This year, she will be an artist-in residence in Akiota, Japan (June) and Mexico City (Aug-Sept).

Her painting and botanical research investigate themes of medicinal plants, spirituality, and quantum theories. Mixed media explores plant personhood, especially as it relates to anticipation and mutuality. Through this media she creates a sense of time and place that builds bridges between plants and people. Her process-led studio practice is centered in sustainability and she often works with handmade pigments and dyes.

Photo by Shelly Mosman