Although I had drawn all my life, I didn't embrace my passion to paint until 2001. I grew up in one of the countless suburbs of New Jersey in between the Holland Tunnel and the Jersey Shore which spawned my love/obsession with the Ferris wheel, arcade games, funnel cake and all other Boardwalk decadence. I studied behavioral neuroscience at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. After graduation, I worked my way out west to Seattle after a brief stay in Boulder where I found people not afraid to speak their minds, while I worked in a rat lab. In Seattle, I worked serving the mentally ill and developmentally disabled population. From Seattle, I was pulled to Austin to study Latin American sociology at the University of Texas. I attained my Ph.D. in 2001 after conducting anthropological fieldwork on human migration in Chiapas, Mexico in 1999. Although my experience in Mexico was rich, I longed for artistic creativity. In 2002, I quit my full-time job doing social scientific research and threw myself into oil painting and now paint fervently. I have taken art classes at Laguna Gloria Art School, the Austin Fine Arts School and at the Art Students League in Denver. I continue to find inspiration in many innovative painters who include friends both near and far and my husband Jeff whose extraordinary grace on the guitar has taught me that strength lies in subtlety. I now realize that my time studying the human psyche both psychologically and sociologically must have left its imprint on my brain permanently...because I cannot seem to stray too far from it in my painting.
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the press
Read the Austin Chronicle's (January 16, 2009) review of "A Grand Affair."
Featured in "Welcome to My Studio" in the November 21, 2008 issue of the Austin Chronicle.
Featured in "Keep Austin Artistic: Jennifer Balkan, Painter," in the September, 2008 issue of Austin Woman.
Read the Austin Chronicle's (May 23, 2008) review of "Hidden Meaning."
My 2007 show "Untitled in Blue" was nominated for the 2007-2008 Austin Critics Table Awards under the category of "Solo Gallery Exhibition."
Mike Lee of KUT Radio of Austin, Texas interviewed me for "Arts Eclectic." Click play to listen online.
Erin Ripley of 91.7 KOOP Community Radio for Austin, Texas interviewed me for "Visual Aid."
Interview will air Monday April 28th at 1:00pm CST. Click Visual Aid to listen online.
Featured in "Seriously Funny: six artists view life with imagination and wit," in the May, 2008 issue of Southwest Art.
Read latest review in Northern Virginia's Falls Church News (January 3, 2008) here.
I have been selected to be in New American Paintings, volume 72, released October 1, 2007.
Read the Austin Chronicle's (May 18, 2007) review of "Untitled in Blue."
Artwork and interview published in Mannequin Envy, quarterly journal of poetic and visual art, Spring 2007.
Artwork published in Farfelu Magazine, Summer 2006.
Artwork and interview published in Edifice Wrecked Lit & Art Zine, Spring 2006.
"Sideshow girl" caught the eye of John Robinson's Sideshow World , dedicated to "preserving the past while promoting the future of sideshow for fans and performers." See the Sideshow Art Gallery under "Enjoying the Present..."
Southwest Art Magazine (December, 2005) selected me as an "Artist to Watch."
Forest Preece of the West Austin News (May 19, 2005) writes a story about me.
The Austin Monthly Magazine (October, 2004) writes about my work.
The Austin American Statesman (July 22, 2004) writes, "Newcomer Jennifer Balkan's impressionistic paintings, especially her seemingly cinematic 'In Transit' series, are provocative. They involve the same female character carrying a small pink suitcase poised near railroad tracks, implying a hidden narrative. Having earned a doctorate in sociology, Balkan began taking painting classes in 2001 and says she is interested in the psychological impact her art has on its audience. (Cindy Sherman in paint?)"
At the 2004 Austin Fine Arts Festival, my friend and portrait model, John Ratliff, describes his experience in the Austin American Statesman (April 1, 2004) as the subject for my oil painting demonstration.
The Austin Chronicle (February 13, 2004) writes about the 'Segue to Flight' series in a review.