Episode 19: Jordan Eagles
Release date: Aug. 30, 2016
The multidimensional, abstract paintings, sculptures and installations of artist Jordan Eagles have caught the imagination of viewers and critics alike. His invented preservation technique, combining blood, plexiglass, UV resin and other materials, permanently retains the organic material’s natural colors, patterns and textures.
Eagles speaks with MOCRA Director Terrence Dempsey, SJ, about his unusual artistic media and his works’ rich symbolic associations.They also discuss Eagles’ continuing growth as an artist, including , a work created to raise awareness about the FDA’s ban on the donation of blood by men who have sex with men.
The Conversation
Related Exhibition
Credits
Producer: David Brinker
Recording Engineer and Editor: Mike Schrand
Host: Linda Kennedy
Theme and Incidental Music: Stephen James Neale
Background
Jordan Eagles is a New York-based artist whose works incorporating blood have caught the imagination
of viewers and critics alike. His preservation technique permanently retains the blood's
natural colors, patterns, and textures. The works evoke themes of corporeality, mortality,
spirituality, and science. Most recently he has received widespread attention for
his work Blood Mirror, which addresses government regulations about the donation of blood by gay and bisexual
men.
Eagles received his BA in Fine Arts/Media Studies from New York University's Gallatin School for Individualized Studies in 1999. He has been profiled in TIME, The New York Times, New York Magazine, FRAME, ArtInfo.com, and The Huffington Post, and his work is found in numerous private and public collections, including MOCRA, the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA), the Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ), the University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor, MI), the Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, MA), the Rose Art Museum (Waltham, MA) and the Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY). His work has been shown at venues including the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT), the High Museum (Atlanta, GA), the Elmhurst Museum (Elmhurst, IL), the Mobile Museum of Art (Mobile, AL), Trinity Museum at Trinity Church, Wall Street (New York, NY) and the International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago, IL).