Jordan Weber
Des Moines, IA
Jordan Weber is a Des Moines, Iowa based regenerative land sculptor and activist who works at the cross section of social justice and environmental racism. Most recently, Weber was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to create an urban phytoremediation farm in North Minneapolis called Prototype for Poetry vs Rhetoric (deep roots) which acts as a counter tactic to industrial violence upon biodiverse lands and racially diverse communities. The project was produced in collaboration with N. Minneapolis community members during the height of the George Floyd protests in late May 2020. He is currently in residence at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity (CRE2) in St Louis, MO. Weber’s two-year project residency centers on social and environmental justice, incarceration, and re-entry with Close The Workhouse Campaign—a collaborative project that is dedicated to the closure of the St. Louis Medium Security Jail. Awards and fellowships include the Harvard LOEB Fellowship and Harvard ArtLab Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Award for Sculptors, Creative Capital Award, A Blade of Grass fellowship NYC, and the African American Leadership Forum Award.
Photo of 4MX Greenhouse, a sculptural programmatic artwork supporting holistic community health.
Photo of kNOw Space at J Gallery, a portable zendo that provides participants with empowering tools to build resilience into self and community, while providing private safe spaces within oppressive constructs to reflect or decompress in natural settings.
Image still from the activation of the public kNOw Space opened in 2019 on a vacant lot between two community outreach non-profits in Jordan Weber’s home city of Des Moines. Photo: Aaron Graves.
A prototype for Poetry vs Rhetoric (Stoop), a community information and decompression stoop made in collaboration with Close the Workhouse Campaign/Arch City Defenders in St. Louis, MO.
4MX Greenhouse
Jordan Weber is a Des Moines, Iowa based regenerative land sculptor and activist who works at the cross section of social justice and environmental racism.
Artist Bio4MX Greenhouse is a sculptural programmatic artwork supporting holistic community health and land revitalization. Built on the site of Malcolm X’s Omaha home at birth—now 17 acres of native grassland embedded in a dense superfund designated North Omaha—the greenhouse mimics the shape of Malcolm X’s first residential home. In collaboration with multiple community non-profit and private initiatives, it grows and distributes indigenous crops, exists as a community gathering space for art performances, hosts decompression and healing programs such as Zazen Meditation and offers urban sustainability workshops including information on how to request services from the EPA to replace highly contaminated soil.