Jonathan Durham, MFA

My Story

I grew up in central Virginia and regularly visited my grandparents in Marshall, NC. My grandpa took me fishing and exploring for arrowheads with occasional pit stops for banana splits at some of the best old time diners near the French Broad. He had a farm and grew tobacco until government regulations made that unsustainable. Then he worked more administratively in that field. But he and many of my relatives were always invested in gardening, agriculture and stewardship of the land in Western North Carolina. My mother was a librarian in public schools and my father was a Music Director in a Protestant Church.

As a kid I liked sports and comic books and drawing. In undergrad at UVA I double majored in Art and Psychology and went on to receive an MFA in Sculpture from UCLA. Since graduate school my research interests have developed broadly into an exploration of the porous boundaries between the self and the environment. I am interested in critically and humorously investigating the intersections of environmental and corporate abuse, mental health and material agency. My sculpturally driven projects focus on how industry and technology make their impressions on our bodies and the land by drawing parallels between state violence and environmental harm.

Warren Wilson College’s emphasis on practical, real work with the land, animals, vegetation and local climate are values that I believe artists and innovators need to be cultivating and learning from in order to reimagine more creative and livable futures.