Plaster on Lath: Jill Downen Returns to Bruno David Gallery with “Emplacement”
03.03.2026
In Emplacement, Associate Professor and Chair of Sculpture at KCAI Jill Downen presents plaster drawings on wood lath that continue her sustained exploration of architecture, the body, and perception, creating contemplative spaces shaped by material transformation, erasure, and underlying support structures.
The Kansas City Art Institute is proud to announce the latest exhibition from Jill Downen, Associate Professor and Chair of our Sculpture department.
Emplacement
March 6 – April 11, 2026
Reception: Friday, March 6, 2026 | 6–8 pm
The Bruno David Gallery (7513 Forsyth Blvd, St. Louis, MO) is presenting Emplacement, featuring three new large-scale drawings by Downen.
This marks their seventh solo exhibition with the gallery, a testament to their enduring influence and evolving practice. To accompany the show, the gallery is publishing a comprehensive catalogue that documents the exhibition alongside an in-depth history of Downen’s career and bibliography.
Downen describes drawing as the "main artery" of their life’s work: a primal, immediate way to make the invisible visible stating: "Drawing is the first form of expressivity, before verbal acquisition, to reach out and touch a surface in a way that leaves a mark... the immediacy of thought, to make sensations and ideas visible."
While Downen’s sensibilities lean toward plaster, their recent work has shifted toward a more structural approach: "After years of drawing with plaster on various grounds, including paper, I arrived at the conclusion that the plaster needed an architectural substrate. Wood lath brings the skeletal support and conceptual framework in a unified form."
"These materials allow me to erase with chisels and grinders, building up the surface and then taking it back down to the bones cyclically until the piece is resolved,” Downen said.
Jill Downen is an artist working in sculpture, installation, and drawing. A formative event in their childhood (a lightning strike that hit their family home) sparked a lasting awareness of the body, architecture, and temporality that continues to shape the foundation of their practice. Their most recent body of work explores drawings made with plaster on lath.
“My artwork makes a place for silence, subtlety, and sensitivity to perceptions. When one wonders, ‘Where am I?’ symbolically or philosophically, my work offers a respite before returning to the speed of life with measured focus.”
Jill Downen is the recipient of numerous awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Stone and DeGuire Contemporary Art Award, the Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artists Award, and a Santo Foundation Grant. Jill Downen has created installations at The Momentary/Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, The Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and for Open Spaces: The Exhibition. Their residencies include the MacDowell Colony National Endowment for the Arts residency, and Cité International des Arts residency in Paris, MASS MoCA, and Art Omi, among others. Their art has been reviewed in publications including Whitehot, INES Magazine, Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, Art Papers, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Times and Bad at Sports. They hold a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis.