Jen Clay

Born in 1985 in Mountain View, NC, Jen Clay earned a BFA from UNCC Charlotte and an MFA from UFL in 2014. After relocating to South Florida, they showcased work at the Girls Club Collection, Norton Museum of Art, MOCA North Miami, and Miami Light Box. Notable installations include Soft Sanity (2019) and Welcome to You&Me (2019), created for neurodiverse children.

Residencies at Oolite Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a regional Emmy for “The Texture of Anxiety” followed. Supported by a Knight Arts New Work Award, Jen debuted an animated quilt video game and installation at Locust Projects in 2023. They were a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center and the Black Mountain College Archive and museum both funded by the Windgate Foundation. Clay was recently an artist in residence at the McColl Center in Charlotte, NC from January to April 2025, funded in part by SouthArts. She will then be installing her work created during the McColl Center Residency at the Girls’ Club Collection in the Summer of 2025 and supported by the Broward Innovation grant.

Jen’s art features sewn textiles of mainly non-human figures, inspired by creatures from cosmic horror stories and hallucinatory experiences to embody mental health struggles. Their aim is to create a comforting atmosphere to approach themes of fear and anxiety. Jen is based in South Florida with a studio in CITYSTATE, located in Little Haiti, Miami.