Jessica Vaughn

Jessica Vaughn’s artistic practice is consumed by what others perceive as arbitrary, oftentimes going to sculptural lengths concerned with traditions of minimalism and conceptual art to encourage closer inspection of the systems that dictate where which bodies go and by what means. In her artworks, she uses cast-off materials and images, the surplus of what is overlooked.

At Radcliffe, Vaughn is conducting research into women’s health, civic and museum architecture, and energy systems to inform the creation of new artworks that examine notions of resilience in humans and structures.

Vaughn has had solo exhibitions at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; and Dallas Contemporary. Her work is exhibited widely, including at CAPC Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux; the Shed; Carnegie Museum of Art; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Swiss Institute; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein; Pinakothek der Moderne; the Kitchen; SculptureCenter; and Studio Museum in Harlem. Vaughn received a bachelor of humanities and arts degree in fine arts and social history from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. She was a participant in the Whitney Museum of Art’s Independent Study Program and the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. In 2023, Vaughn was awarded the Frieze Artadia Prize; in 2021, a Creative Capital grant; and in 2019, a Graham Foundation grant. She was a 2022 CCA-WRI Research Fellow, in Montreal, and a 2020 fellow at the Clark Art Institute, in Williamstown, Massachusetts.