Goodbye, Paw Paw. I love you forever. A candid moment between us at Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, August 26, 1996. My maternal grandmother died in her sleep around 5pm on August 16, 2024, in her house in Palatine, Illinois. Mirroring the above, a candid moment between us on Class Day of my college graduation, Columbia University, New York City, May 19, 2009 (despite what her outfit would have you believe). I wanted to take a photo in front of the chapel where I ran a student art gallery in the basement. I don’t have it in me to write an eloquent tribute like I ..read more

Stoked to announce that LAMINATOR Vol. 1 will also be available for purchase in Buddy, the 2,500 sq. ft. shop inside the Chicago Cultural Center! (Dropped off 10 copies in the store on Monday. The staff told me they’ll be on display in about a week!) Thank you to Buddy for inviting me to be a vendor! And thank you, as always, to the 68 artists, poets, and writers from all over Chicago, the country, and the world whose wonderful work is published in this volume, and to everyone who’s already bought it! So far, 80 have been sold! Make a lovely little day of it in the Loop: Visit the belov ..read more

Rest in peace, Jason Pickleman. This is his Dreams of a City postcard he mailed to me in 2021, in response to the prompt I’ve been giving people since 2008, “Tell me one thing you dream of doing before you die. Use this card as your canvas. When you’re finished, mail the card.” #6425 front & back, NE. corner of Franklin & Chicago, Thursday morning, 2 September 2021. Jason and I only met twice. The first time was in 2019 when I went gallery-hopping one summer evening. At Ken Saunders Gallery, he approached me to ask about my tote bag. It wasn’t until the middle of our conver ..read more

Me last night with my piece, Petal, which I’d shot on my iPhone 5s in 2014, at the opening reception of the photography exhibition Click at The Art Center Highland Park: Love that they hung my photo in this alcove right by the wine: If you missed the event, the show runs through April 6. And if you’re lucky, you can also pick up a copy of my brand new zine in the Gift Shop! I dropped off five books and immediately it was down to four—thanks to artist Diane Ponder who bought one! Congratulations on being the first in-person customer of LAMINATOR Vol. 1 ..read more

Ahhhhh look what arrived today! My first ever zine! It’s a beauty. Artists on the Lam presents: LAMINATOR Vol. 1, featuring artwork, poetry, and prose by 68 artists, poets, and writers from all over Chicago, the country, and the world. 108 pages, 5.8 x 8.3 inches, full color pages on satin paper, gloss covers with gloss lamination, perfect bound. Thank you to Mixam for printing these! And thank you again, of course, to all the incredibly talented contributors! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jenny Lam (@artistsonthelam) Within the next week or so I’ll be mailing zines to ..read more

My 2014 photo Petal—shot on my iPhone 5s—has been selected to be exhibited in Click at The Art Center Highland Park! I remember taking an oil painting class at TAC the summer I was 19 and it was a lovely experience, and I’m overjoyed to show my art there. Thank you to guest jurors Paula Chamlee and Rose Blouin and curator Caren Helene Rudman for choosing my work. The Art Center Highland Park. Photo via TAC. When: March 1 – April 6, 2024 Opening Reception: Friday, March 1, 5:30-8pm Where: The Art Center Highland Park 1957 Sheridan Rd., Highland Park, IL 60035 Petal, 2014 ..read more

Thank you to my alma mater Columbia University for featuring me again yesterday, this time in their Instagram stories! From when I was named one of 2023’s Culture Shifters by HuffPost: Now, on to more sneak peeks at the artwork that will be in LAMINATOR Vol. 1 zine (pre-order the inaugural issue here!): A dreamy photograph called Through the looking glass 4 by Klinta Kalneja in Riga, Latvia: An incredible acrylic painting called The Streets Are Ours by Chicago artist Keelan McMorrow: He says: “As a painter, I’ve always tended to view my work as a sort of alchemy—from pigment to pai ..read more

My photo Terminus—shot on my iPhone 5s in January 2020 of the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina—was selected to be exhibited in 71% - The State of Water at Palazzo Costanzi, Sala Umberto Veruda, during Trieste Photo Days in Trieste, Italy! Here are some install shots by Exhibit Around, as well as my original photo (see if you can spot it in each exhibition photo). Grazie! (View more of my mobile photography here, and read more about that Patagonia trip—the last time I travelled—in my pre-pandemic post “Alegría.”) Switching gears to showcasing others’ talents: My new art, poe ..read more

Submissions for LAMINATOR Vol. 1 are now closed! Thank you so much to everyone who submitted to my new zine; I received applications from 200(!) artists, poets, and writers, the most I’ve ever gotten for anything! And my favorite part is how international this was; I have entries from so many different countries all around the world—truly living up to Artists on the Lam’s motto since 2011, “championing local artists; channeling global perspectives”. Everyone will be notified whether they’ve been selected in… I originally said about a week or so (hopefully! it’s a lot more than I expected and ..read more

I’ve just been announced as one of the winners of One Eyeland Awards | World’s Top Mobile Photographers! My 2014 photo On the Boardwalk won Bronze, and my 2015 photo Spiral and 2017 photo Singing Sands are Finalists. All shot on my iPhone 5s, of course. You can view more of my mobile photography here. Pivoting to showing off the work of other artists: The open call for my new zine, LAMINATOR, has been included in Artwork Archive’s monthly “Best Artist Opportunities” list! And here’s a sneak peek at one of the submissions I’ve gotten so far. I usually don’t share art until after the ap ..read more