j. kiku langford

about the artist

Jenifer Kiku Langford was born in Tucson, Arizona on November 7, 1984 to parents Joann K. Nakagawa and Stephen A. Langford. She grew up in Oro Valley, Arizona, and attended Copper Creek Elementary School, Cross Middle School and Canyon del Oro High School. Growing up she loved math, writing, singing, playing the piano, drawing, photography, painting, playing in the rain, watching the monsoon thunderstorms, and doing various crafts with her mother, among other things. She never moved houses until 2002 when she left for college.

She is now a graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. She currently works as a Special Instructor in Studio Art. This term she is T.A.ing for Painting 1 and Photography 1. In her own work she has dabbled in many different media, but she is most interested in finding that place where art and interaction with people meet, whether that is through painting, sculpture performance, or whatever medium best works.

In her time at Dartmouth, Kiku was a Co-Director of AREA, one of two student-run art galleries at Dartmouth College. She also helped to found Novart, Dartmouth's other student-run art gallery. These organizations curate and hang several shows per year. In winter 2005, Kiku exhibited a painting from her public painting project in AREA. Kiku set-up and painted the piece at the AREA opening on March 2nd and it stayed in the exhibition through late April.

Kiku was very involved in the arts at Dartmouth. She worked at both the Student Jewelry Workshop and the Jaffe-Friede and Strauss Galleries as and undergraduate. She also enjoys music and theater. She sang for three years with the Dartmouth Glee Club. Her sophomore year she played the Tramp in Thonrnton Wilder's short play "Pullman Car Hiawatha," She was also able to travel the world with the Glee Club, touring in such places as the US Northwest, the Deep South and even Rio de Janero, Brazil!

Kiku is a self-published author. Her book, Public Painting: an autobiographical journey was released in June 2005. In spring and summer 2005 Kiku exhibited the paintings from that book in her first solo show hung in Thayer Food Court at Dartmouth College. Click here to read more about this project.

In October 2005, Kiku had a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson Vermont. She lived and worked with many other artists from all over the world for four weeks. She then exhibited the work from this residency in winter 2006. It hung in Collis Student Center from January-March 2006.

She has recently sold two paintings from her winter 2005 Public Painting Project to the College, one of which now belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Collis, of the Collis Student Center. The other will be framed and put on display in the Collis Student Center in the near future.