Mythic tales, spiritual icons, evolutionary biology, discoveries of the universe, poetry, history and ecology; there is an innumerable list of things that can trigger an insight and narrative for my work. Both imagined and observed I am interested in creating imagery that traverses in scale from the microcosm to the macrocosm via architectures, schematics, maps, anatomy, botanicals, living creatures and apparatuses. By compounding and integrating these organic and man-made systems my interest is to create a symbolic visual language that offers an expression for a greater working complexity of lifeís cycles, forces and functioning whole. The duplicity of meanings derived from form and content run continuous throughout my work. Common themes reveal a humanity thatís seeking balance to an increasingly mechanized relationship to the natural world and an inquisitive awe of evolutions found within lifeís boundless permutations.

Born in 1971 in Little Rock, Arkansas Jovi Schnell received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute followed by a two year fellowship at De Ateliers studio program in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She has also completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Art and the McDowell Colony. In 2002 she received the Pollack-Krasner Award for painting.

Ms Schnellís work has been exhibited throughout many galleries and institutions including the Stedelijk Bureau Museum in Amsterdam, The Brooklyn Museum, The Drawing Center in New York, The Williams College Museum, PS1, The Derek Eller Gallery, The Luggage Store Gallery, and Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco. Her work has received reviews in The New York Times, Flash Art, Art in America and Art on Paper and has been featured in Interview Magazine, ZingMagazine and Beautiful Decay. Ms. Schnell currently lives and works in San Francisco and is visiting faculty at The San Francisco Art Institute and The California College of Art.