“When thinking about life, I distinguish between lively health and vitality and barely scraping along on the threshold of oblivion… the difference between syntropy and entropy.” - Hugh Lovell
Jillian Pate is a multidisciplinary fine artist, steel sculptor, and aspiring architect specializing in wall sculptures installation art, and drawing. She is a native of Colorado where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) from the University of Denver, and a Master of Architecture (MARCH) from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Her work is distinguished by concepts of connectivity, rhythm, and biomimicry through industrial materials. She explores a multitude of systems including musical theory, biology, chemistry, physics, and digital data to find new ways to think about material and structure and the built environment. Her interest often turns to entropy: the natural recursion in all things; and syntropy: a process of building order and organization. With a growing concern for the state of the earth and a need for the impermanence of objects rather than the permanence, the need for things to decompose and cultivate life rather than suffocate and pollute, she takes aim at understanding and highlighting structures ability to serve its users while also integrating into the landscape. Her specific interest in steel came through analyzing the paradox of it being both strong and industrious, which is a remarkable organic and resonating material. It is resilient and self-healing, and yet elemental in its composition. It can last for hundreds of years, yet it can decompose with mere water, air and salt back into mere iron-oxides. It is these sorts of paradoxes that Jillian aims to explore through her material studies and artform. She seeks to understand and promote innovative uses of these materials that highlight their composition and innate sensibilities.
Curriculum Vitae
SOLO EXHIBITIONS :
2014 | Metaphorical Fugues: Exploring Interconnection | Ironton Studios and Gallery, Denver CO
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS :
2015 | THE KNEW, Juried Exhibition | Point Gallery, Denver CO
2013 | 9th Annual Painted Violin Project | Denver Young Artists Orchestra, Denver CO
2011 | New Perspectives | Translations Gallery, Denver CO
2010 | Contemporary Painters and Jillian Pate | Translations Gallery, Denver CO
BFA Exhibition| Myrhren Gallery, University of Denver, Denver CO
Insiders/Outsiders | Pirate Art Gallery, Denver CO
2009 | Art Speaks| Edge Gallery, Denver CO
AWARDS :
2019 | AIA Small Project Award | as member of Colorado Building Workshop for Rocky Mountain National Park
Architzer Award - Architecture+Landscape | as member of Colorado Building Workshop for Rocky Mountain National Park
Architectural Education Award - Design Build | as member of Colorado Building Workshop for Rocky Mountain National Park
2017 | College of Architecture and Planning, Fall Graduate Tuition Award
PRESS :
2019 | Modern In Denver (Fall Issue): When Nature Calls By Scott Kirkwood, pg 60-65 | as member of Colorado Building Workshop for Rocky
Mountain National Park
Urban Next : Longs Peak Privies: Lightweight Prefabricated Construction | as member of Colorado Building Workshop for Rocky Mountain National Park
2014 | The Denver Post: Ironton Gallery offers an abstract take on music and science By Ray Mark Rinaldi
SELECT GRANTS AND COMMISSIONS :
2020 | Denver Health | Denver CO
2016 | The Center at Lowry | Denver CO
Skyestone | Broomfield CO
2014 | Moda North Bay Village Apartments | North Miami Beach FL
2013 | Hyatt Regency, Denver Tech Center | Denver CO
2010 | Meridian Alliance Firm | Denver CO
BFA Grant | University of Denver, Denver CO
2009 | Partners in Scholarship Grant | University of Denver, Denver CO
Krenning Music Studio | Larkspur CO
2008 | Serristori Hospital collaborative Fresco | in partnership with SACI |Figline Valdarno, Tuscany, Italy
EDUCATION:
2019 | Masters of Architecture | University of Colorado, Denver
Colorado Building Workshop, Design-Build Certificate with Rick Sommerfeld (18-credit focus track)
2010 | Bachelors of Fine Arts | University of Denver, Denver CO | Magna Cum Laude
2008 | Studio Arts Center International | Florence, Italy