ABOUT THIS TEACHER

Born in Chicago, Jennifer Norback grew up in Neenah, Wisconsin; New York City; and Augusta, Georgia.

As a child, the bohemian, artistic world was a constant. Her father lived in an artist studio apartment in Carnegie Hall and as a small girl she would meet opera singers, ballet dancers, and artists around his baby grand piano. It was an exciting world and one that would provide great influence on her life. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she holds a B.A. in Art History and South Asian Studies and a degree in French proficiency from the Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne at the Sorbonne, Paris, France.

After college, Jennifer lived in Boulder, Colorado, where she started her first job in a gallery, shipping antique maps and botanical prints. She would eventually move to Paris, where she worked in a gallery and developed relationships with many of the local artists – something that to this day remains vital to her business. She returned to her birthplace in 1998, where she directed Lydon Fine Art, Hart Gallery, and Rosenthal Fine Art. Throughout this, she maintained relationships with Paris and showed work at Art Chicago under the Galerie Beckel Odille Boicos (Paris).

In 2008, Jennifer opened Jennifer Norback Fine Art, which strives to serve as a bridge between Chicago and European (specifically Parisian) artists. The relationship grew organically from her having lived in both cities and believing Chicago to be one and the same with its sister-city. ”The cities seem to have a mutual respect for one another so my personal affinity for the two cities seemed to echo a larger genuine affection between the larger populations.” Through her work with JNFA, Jennifer has brought Chicago to Paris and Paris to Chicago. She now plans on expanding the gallery’s international reach by opening up to Greece with an artist-in-residence program where artists from Paris or Chicago spend a period of time on the ionian island of Paxos working with the mood, light, and experience of the island to create works which explore the island from their unique perspectives.

Throughout her career, Jennifer has curated a number of institutional exhibits including Stephen McClymont ‘s paintings at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC in 1999; “Portraits from the Mind the Art of William Utermohlen” at Chicago Cultural Center; and “Paris – Chicago: The Photography of Jean-Christophe Ballot for the Loyola University Museum of Art in 2009. She has also developed collaborations with Myriad Pharmaceuticals and the National Alzheimer’s Association and organized, curated, and developed funding partnerships with French Consulate, City of Paris, Alliance Française, and City of Chicago – Sister Cities.

Believing that quality and content are not confined to any group of artists or time, Jennifer cites no real favorite artist or era, stating she is interested in thoughtful content and uncompromising quality in all media – from traditional bronzes to experimental sound pieces created by computer algorithms. “A work of art is effective if it can speak at the same time both to our personal unique experience and to something universal in the human experience.”