Artist Statement

My paintings begin with the body. I work at a scale that matches my full reach—fingertip to fingertip—so each mark records movement, presence, and intuition. The grid holds it all in place. It gives me something to push against. It's not about control, but containment—a way to hold chaos, memory, and motion all at once.

Though my work is abstract, it is shaped by 25 years of painting directly from observation. I grew up identifying birds, plants, and insects with my parents, both musicians and amateur naturalists. Summers on my grandparents’ farm taught me to read the weather, notice seasonal shifts, and understand time as cyclical. These rhythms still guide me. Nature wasn’t just a backdrop -- it was how I made sense of things, especially while growing up with a mother whose moods were unpredictable and overwhelming. I watched how the land adapted: trees bending around fallen trunks, still growing.

I use color, gesture, and layered marks to process the full spectrum of lived experience – grief, trauma, joy and survival. Sacred geometry appears as a structing force, a visual and emotional anchor. I am interested in how a line can hold chaos, how paint can become a kind of memory. Everything I make is an attempt to reconcile feeling with form, to honor what we carry, to map what cannot always be said.

 

BIO

Gretchen Durst Jacobs is an abstract painter and printmaker based in Dayton, Ohio, and Ontario, Canada. Her work explores embodied systems, resilience, and the tension between structure and change through an intuitive, process-driven practice. Through painting, printmaking, and installation, she investigates how structure can both support and disrupt perception, memory, and lived experience.

She received an MFA from the University of Cincinnati and a BFA from Wright State University and attended the New York Studio School Drawing and Painting Marathons and Summer Sessions in 2000 and 2003. Her work has been supported by grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District, as well as residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Jentel, and Zea Mays Printmaking. In 2018, she was selected by the Ohio Arts Council to participate in an invitational residency and cultural exchange at Grafikwerkstatt Dresden, Germany.

Jacobs has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan. Selected venues include Manifest Gallery, the Riffe Gallery, the Bristol Art Museum, and Grafikwerkstatt Dresden. Her work is included in public and private collections, including the Dayton Metro Library and the Kettering Government Center.

She is represented by Dana Wiley Gallery.

Exhibitions & Collections

  • 2026 What the Body Carries, Pop Up Show, The Contemporary Dayton, Dayton, OH

    2025 Resilient Convergence The Dana Wiley Gallery, Dayton, OH

    2021 Nature/Nurture, The Dana Wiley Gallery, Dayton, OH

    2020 New Work - The Winds Café, Yellow Springs, OH

    2018 Line, Link, Shape, University of Cincinnati, Batavia, OH

    2017 New work-Line, Link, Shape, Dutoit Gallery, Dayton, OH

    2014 Works by Gretchen Durst Jacobs, Middletown Arts Center, Middletown, OH

    2013 Gretchen Durst Jacobs, Paintings, River Road Gallery, Grand Bend, Ontario,  Canada

    2012 Lake Paintings, The Glen House, Yellow Springs, OH

    2010 Then and Now; Drawings & Paintings, Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH

    2007 MFA Thesis Exhibition, University Galleries on Sycamore, The University of  Cincinnati, OH

    2004 New Work, Drawings and Paintings, Riverbend Art Center, Dayton, OH

  • 2026 When in the Course of Human Events, Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI

    2026 Artlink - Midwest Regional, Ft. Wayne, IN

    2024 Dayton Printmakers Cooperative: Dayton/Kyoto Invitational, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH

    2024 Works on paper 2024, Rosewood Arts Center, Kettering, OH

    Future of Female, Dayton Society of Artists, Dayton, OH

    2023 45thAnnual Whitewater Valley Art Competition, Indiana University East, 

    Richmond, IN

    Momentum, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

    2022 Virtual 2022 Alumni Exhibition, New York Studio School, (Artsy)

    Paint Ontario, Grand Bend, Ontario (juried)

    10th Annual, Cerulean Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (juried)

    Not Quite Seen, 1628 LTD, Cincinnati, OH (juried)

  • 2020 Members Show, Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH (juried)

    What is Push/Pull, Artists Respond, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, Truro, MA  (juried)

    Dayton & Kyoto Print Exchange, Dayton, OH & Kyoto, Japan

    2019 Fall 2019 Printmaking, 1628 ART, Cincinnati, OH (juried)

    National Juried Exhibition, Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, OH

    Flat File Project, Zea Mays, Florence, MA

    2018 Everyday life and Urban Situations, Alten Feuerwache Loschwitz, Grafikwerkstatt,      Dresden, Germany

    Dayton & Kyoto Print Exchange, Dayton, OH & Kyoto, Japan

    Flat File Project, Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA

    Artist Mentorship Program, Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA

    2017 Working Green, Motherbrook Arts and Community Center, Dedham, MA, (juried)

    2016 Dayton & Kyoto Print Exchange, Dayton, OH & Kyoto, Japan

    Dayton & Kyoto Print Exchange, Dayton, OH & Kyoto, Japan

    DVAC25, The Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, OH

    Inaugural Members Exhibition, Dutoit Cooperative Gallery Space, Dayton, OH

    2015 10th Annual Print Show, Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH

    2013 National Juried Exhibition, 64 ARTS, Buchanan Center for the Arts, Monmouth, IL

    Prints for Peace, The Art Academy of Cincinnati, OH (juried)

    Five Rivers Metro Parks 50th Anniversary, Dayton, OH

    2011 Go Figure: Drawings from the Tuesday Night Drawing Group, Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries, Wright State University, Dayton, OH

    Transformation, Upper Arlington Cultural Arts Commission, Upper Arlington, OH

  • 2010 Works on Paper 21st Annual, Rosewood Gallery, Dayton, OH (juried)

    2009 The View, Rosewood Gallery, Dayton, OH

    The Ohio Annual, The Zanesville Art Center, Zanesville, OH (juried)

    Bicentennial Exhibition, Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH

    2008 Works on Paper 18th Annual Dayton Area, Rosewood Gallery, Dayton, OH (juried)

    2006 Invitational Salon Exhibition of Small Works, Lehigh Valley and Berks, PA (juried)

    2005 Paint the Huron Shores 8th Annual Exhibition, Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada (juried)

    2003 Border-to-Border 9, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN (juried)

    Realism 2003, Cultural Center of Fine Arts, Parkersburg, West Virginia (juried)

    2002 Small Paintings, Franklin Street Gallery, Centerville, OH, (juried)

    The Still Life, The Dayton Visual Arts Center, 11th Annual Members Exhibition, Dayton, OH (juried)

    2001 Ohio State Fair, Columbus, OH (juried)

    Art About Town, Dayton, OH (juried)

    2000 Senior Exhibition, Wright State University, Dayton, OH

    1999 The View, Rosewood Gallery, Kettering, OH (juried)

    Art About Town, Dayton, OH (juried)

  • 2017-2018 Zea Mays Printmaking Archive and Flat File, Florence, MA

    2016 Commissioned Painting for The Dayton Metro Library/Re-Imagining Works, 

    Dayton, OH

    2010 Kettering Government Center, CitiSites Collection, Kettering, OH

    2008 Ohio Governor’s Residence, Columbus, OH

    Various private collections

Professional Highlights

  • 2024 Ohio Arts Council, Artist Opportunity Grant

    2023 Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District, Individual Artist Opportunity Grant

    2022 Mercedes Matter Award, New York Studio School, Virtual 2022 Alumni Exhibition

    2020 Honorable Mention, Springfield Museum of Art Members Show, Springfield, OH

    2022 Third place, Cerulean Arts Gallery, 10th Annual Juried Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA

  • 2023 Artist talk, C2C Artist Collective

    2020 Painting Workshop, Dana Wiley Gallery, Dayton, OH

    2018 Presentation/Workshop, University of Cincinnati, Batavia, OH

    2016 Workshop, Taft Museum Art, Cincinnati, OH

    2016 DVAC 25, Dayton, OH, (co-host print blitz with The Dayton Printmakers Cooperative and the Dayton Visual Arts Center)

    2013 If a Tree Falls, The Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, OH, (co-curated exhibition and poetry with poet Aimee Noel)

    2013 Workshop, Dayton Metro Parks, Dayton, OH

    2011 Presentation, University of Cincinnati, Batavia, OH

    2010 Lecture/Presentation, Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH

    2009 Lecture/Presentation, Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH

  • 2023-2019 and 2012-2016 President, Dayton Printmakers Cooperative, Dayton, OH

    2019-2017 Vice President, Dayton Printmakers Cooperative, Dayton, OH

    2003-2008 Dayton Visual Arts Center, Board of Trustees-Secretary, Dayton, OH,

    2003 DVAC Art Auction Chair, 2002 - Art Auction Co-Chair

  • 2026 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Virginia

    2022 Brown Pink Studio, R&F Handmade Paints, Kingston, NY

    2020/2021 The Yellow Chair Virtual Art Salons & Lecture Series with Michael David, Brooklyn, NY

    2018 Grafikwerkstatt, Dresden, Germany

    2018 Zygote Press, Cleveland, OH

    2016 Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA

    2013 The Jentel Artist Residency Program, Banner, WY

  • 2016, Dayton Daily News, Connie Post, Dayton.com: http://www.dayton.com/news/entertainment/personalities/daytonian-week-gretchen-jacobs/nrJPT/

    2013, Dayton City Paper, Jud Yalkut, “If a Tree Falls short show at DVAC,” Vol. 10, No. 25, June 18-24

    2013, Dayton Daily News, Meredith Moss, “Metro Parks kicks off 50th anniversary with ‘Treasurers’, The Exhibit will open at the Schuster, then travel,” April 6, Visual Arts

    2010, Ohio Northern, flickr, http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Gretchen+Durst+Jacobs, "Gretchen Durst Jacobs’ Exhibit," October 18 – November 14

    2007, Dayton Daily News, Pamela Dillon, “Wright State alumni exhibit marks 40 years,” July 5, Z1-13

    2007, Dayton Daily News, Pamela Dillon, “Gov. Strickland exhibiting work of locals,” August 5, D23

    2004, Dayton Daily News, Pamela Dillon, “Artist’s work brings the outdoors indoors,” December 12, Arts & Entertainment, F3.

    2004, Dayton Daily News, Pamela Dillon, “DVAC Annual Auction an Artsy Affair,” 

    April 20, E1

    2004, Dayton City Paper, Jud Yalkut, “From Valleys to Lowlands, The art of Gretchen Durst Jacobs,” Vol. 2, no. 38 Dec. 22, Arts and Culture.

    2002, Dayton Daily News, Pamela Dillon, “STILL LIFE,” July 21, C3

    1996, Dayton Daily News, Kathy Whyde Jesse, “ART: Museum plans gallery,” May 27, Metro Today 1B

    1996, Dayton Daily News, Anne Kallas, “The Art Source Gallery showcases area talent,” August 21, Z3

  • 2008-2014 Adjunct Professor, Wright State University, Dayton, OH

    2007-2008 Adjunct Professor, Miami University, Oxford, OH

    2006-2007 Adjunct Professor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

    2001-2003 Adjunct faculty, Stivers School for the Arts, Dayton, OH

  • 2008 MFA-Painting, The College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

    2000 BFA-Painting, Wright State University, Magna cum laude, Bachelor of Fine Art, Dayton, OH

    1994 BA, Capital University, Columbus, OH

    2000/2003 The New York Studio School, Drawing and Painting Marathons & Summer Sessions, NY, NY

    1978-1980 Kent State University, Kent, OH