Image: Rockford Art Museum
Jennifer Bock-Nelson’s ‘Exhale’ (2024) is currently on view as part of the Rockford Midwestern Biennial at Anderson Gallery, Rockford Art Museum, in Rockford, Illinois. The 12-by-12-inch work, made with watercolor and colored pencil, will remain on view through September 27, 2026, according to the museum and the artist.
Bock-Nelson, who lives in Quincy, Illinois, works from an interest in perception and the ways technology changes what can be seen. In a statement accompanying the work, she describes “how we see and what we see” as the central force in her practice. Her subject is nature and landscape in a broad sense, approached through reference photographs captured with technological devices.
The resulting images focus on details and precision that, she writes, are inaccessible to the unaided eye. Her process involves sustained attention to edges, shapes, light and color. By removing fragments from their original contexts of time, space and location, Bock-Nelson treats them as “microcosms” of a world too large to fully comprehend. The paintings, she says, record fleeting moments in the planet’s rapidly changing environment.
‘Exhale’ is presented in the biennial’s lower-level gallery area. The layout of the Rockford Midwestern Biennial is also the subject of a September 11, 2026, ‘Coffee with the Curator’ program at the museum, where Executive Director and Chief Curator Carrie Johnson is scheduled to discuss how the exhibition came together. That event is separate from the exhibition itself and is listed as free by the museum.
Bock-Nelson is Associate Professor of Art at Quincy University. She earned a BA in Studio Art from Houghton College in 2001 and an MFA in Painting from Northern Illinois University in 2004. Her public work includes a 5,000-square-foot mural on Quincy’s town square in Washington Park, as well as work on two exterior sides of Horizons Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry.
The artist exhibits nationally and has received awards and grants from the Illinois Arts Council and Arts Midwest, among others. She is also identified as an Artist Leadership Fellow and an Artist Inc. Express Facilitator with the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Her listed residencies include Vermont Studio Center, Ox-Bow and Ragdale.
Rockford Art Museum is located at 711 North Main Street in Rockford. Its galleries are open Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission. ‘Exhale’ remains on view in Anderson Gallery through September 27, 2026.
