Jordan Weber
He // Him // His
[ID: A portrait of a man standing in a studio space. He stares directly at the viewer, his face neutral, one eyebrow slightly raised. He has short hair, a neat beard, and wears a black jacket, which is buttoned at the top.]
Cambridge, MA and Des Moines, IA
2022 USA Fellow
This award was generously supported by the Builders Initiative.
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Jordan Weber is a Des Moines, Iowa–based regenerative land sculptor and environmental activist who works at the cross-section of social justice and environmental racism. Most recently, Weber was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to create a regenerative urban farm in north Minneapolis called Prototype for Poetry vs Rhetoric, which acts as a countertactic to industrial violence upon biodiverse lands and racially diverse communities. The project was produced in collaboration with north Minneapolis community members before, during, and after the height of the George Floyd protests in late May 2020.
He is currently in residence at Harvard University as the inaugural LOEB/ArtLab Fellow and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri. Weber’s two-year project residency centers on social and environmental justice, incarceration, and trauma-informed healing, with a specific focus on the Close the Workhouse campaign—a collaborative project that is dedicated to the closure of St. Louis’ Medium Security Institution (better known locally as the Workhouse). Previous awards and fellowships include the Joan Mitchell Award for Sculptors, the Creative Capital Award, the A Blade of Grass Fellowship, and the African American Leadership Forum award.
Portrait photo by Aram Boghosian.
Prototype for Poetry vs Rhetoric. Photo courtesy of Walker Art Center.[ID: An overhead photograph of a garden formed of twelve raised beds arranged symmetrically to create a large pathway through the center, which contains three decorative rocks. The beds are filled with leafy green vegetables.]
(4MX) Malcolm X Greenhouse. Photo by Bruce Bales.[ID: A photograph of a one-room structure with a bit of woods and a sunset visible behind it. It is made of corrugated plastic and black beams with a small porch at the front. At the top is a white neon sign that reads “4mx.”]