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Jaclyn Mednicov | Multi-Disciplinary Artist 

Artist Jaclyn Mednicov, photographed by Doug Birkenheuer

Jaclyn Mednicov is a Chicago-based artist whose work spans painting, sculpture, and installation. Drawing on botanical forms gathered from her surroundings, she creates delicate impressions and castings that capture the fleeting beauty of nature. Working with clay, ceramics, plaster, and paint, she explores themes of impermanence, memory, and the passage of time.

How did you begin?

At 17, I first understood painting as an important means of expression. As a reserved teenager, I experienced liberating senses of freedom and comfort while exploring form, texture, and the material basis of artistic practice. With increasing conviction, I felt that only through art could I see, and only through artworks did I have something to say.

Growing up in a suburban environment dominated by uniform architecture, I always felt drawn to nature. When I could, I sought solace in natural settings. Today, I’m a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates elements from the environment, such as flowers, weeds, and wildflowers, that I often forage locally. The botanicals, edging into decay, are pressed into clay to capture and reveal their details, like funerary images or high-resolution fossilized impressions from the distant past.

The clay serves as a mould for different castings with materials such as acrylic paint, plaster, and ceramic slip. This process is an obsession, consistently unveiling unforeseen details and textures. Final forms include ceramic vessels, cylinders, and fragments, as well as relief paintings in acrylic paint.

Major life events, especially the loss of my father, have highlighted the fragility of life and the ephemerality of biological existence. I see nature as a metaphor for time–its transient beauty relates to daily life and impermanence. I seek for my work to hold beauty and temporality, to memorialise what was and, as a preserved image, will always be. Each piece points to a past moment in time and space.

Ferns & Weeds, glazed porcelain, 28 x 25 x 25 cm, 2025

How did you learn?


After earning a BFA at the University of Kansas in 1999, I moved to New York, and in 2007, I attended my first residency at the Vermont Studio Center. In 2011, I returned to Illinois to attend an MA in Studio Arts program at Eastern Illinois University, followed by a residency at the Ragdale Foundation. I received an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016.

I’ve used clay as a mould-making material but never as a final work until my participation in a residency at the European Ceramic Work Center in Oisterwijk, Netherlands. It was here that my affinity for ceramics began and proved to be a pivotal point for my work as an artist. In 2024, my partner, Brian Anderson’s Fulbright Award brought us to Saga Prefecture, Japan, a region known for ceramics. 

As a craft-based industrial designer, Brian explored methods for valorising waste from the regional ceramics industry. During our ten-month stay, I deepened my own engagement with ceramics, and in December 2024, I was invited as a visiting artist to Awagami Factory to work with washi paper. These experiences taught me endless amounts of knowledge when it comes to working with various materials.

Who or what most influences your work?

I’m the kind of artist who responds to my surroundings, which most often means nature. Although I live in an urban environment, I have regular opportunities to spend time in more rural areas. These experiences allow me to observe flora in ways that deeply engage me, and I’ve become especially interested in capturing its fleeting sensibility.

How do you plan, prepare, and create your works?


Because I work primarily through intuition, I do not begin with a fixed plan or extensive preparation. My process often starts with plants, which I use to create either a print or an impression in clay. From there, I respond to what emerges. I cast, trace, and print, allowing the work to move through a series of iterations.

I’m excited by moments of revelation - when a printed surface is lifted, or a cast form is released. This is also why I fell in love with ceramics; the transformation that occurs before and after firing is extraordinary. It is a process filled with surprise, and because of this continual discovery, I prefer not to plan.

What is a typical day?

There is no such thing as a typical day for me. I am a Lecturer in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in addition to holding other roles as an art educator. Between teaching and the demands of daily life, I do not maintain a fixed routine. This way of working suits me, and I tend to thrive during the windows of time that become available.

I have a studio about a fifteen-minute drive from my home, and I go there nearly every day. I often make monoprints as a form of sketching, alongside other essential studio activities such as applying for opportunities, hosting studio visits, organising materials, and documenting my work. I usually experience intense periods of making during academic breaks. Many of my projects have developed most deeply through residencies and other meaningful experiences outside of my home studio.

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Interview by Lucrezia Lucas

Images from Doug Birkenheuer, Tony Favarula, Tom Van Eynde and Cynthia Lynn

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Jaclyn Mednicov will be exhibiting her work from 19 March until 27 August 2026 at Imprints, Fragments, Reliefs at The Wolf Collective, a private home gallery in Primrose Hill, London. To attend, or for more information, email info@thewolfcollective.co.uk