Jennifer Nadler (Wright) was born in 1960 in New York City and spent her youth in New Jersey. Her Eastern European Grandparents hailed from the towns of Grodno Gubernia, Lebedvo, Vilna & Horodenka. As a child, Jennifer loved the arts, music, and mythology She took art classes and studied the piano from the age of 5. In both her schooling and parental upbringing, the arts, music, and drama in combination were valued as integral.
Jennifer graduated from Yale College in 1982 with a BA in Art History, studying under mentors Vincent Scully and Turner Brooks. She then spent one year in Haifa, Israel on a Lady Davis Architectural Fellowship, sketching and traveling widely throughout Israel and Egypt.
Jennifer graduated from the Harvard GSD in 1987 with a Master’s in Architecture, studying under mentors Raphael Moneo, Harry Cobb, and James Ackerman. She then moved to New York City to work for I.M. Pei & Partners.
Jennifer has worked as an Architect at both private design firms and public agencies. Simultaneously, she has painted and made architectural sculptures without the pressure to sell. Jennifer has painted twelve wall & ceiling murals in local public schools, in a Synagogue, and in her home.
In 2020, Jennifer and her husband, Roy Wright, Photographer, wrote and published C.B.J. Snyder, New York City Public School Architecture, 1891 – 1922.
In addition to being an artist and architect, Jennifer is a pianist. She lives with her husband and two college-aged children in Jersey City, NJ.
Statement:
When I was 4 years old, I experienced of a moment outside of time. I remembered a higher world, both in myself and in the universe. I recognized then that I wished to become an artist. It was wordless for me as a child.
I believe that everyone has such moments, wherein everything temporarily aligns. Essence is touched.
In my daily life, I experience pendulum swings between sadness and joy, between the loss of a connection with a more real self, and then the remembrance and recovery of it. As I begin to evolve and change, through openness to help, I am less engulfed by the oscillation.
I try to express these ideas in my paintings. Like Odysseus, each individual’s possible movement is one of struggling to find their way back home.
A magnificent such moment is expressed in the architecture of Chartres Cathedral. The long “Y” axis of the nave arrives at the short “X” axis of the transept, while the “Z” axis ascends towards heaven. Three spatial extensions come together at once, expressive and symbolic of the possible unification of a human being. There is at Chartres an incredibly beautiful energy that reminds me of the moment I experienced when I was 4.
Stylistically, my paintings are primitive and mystical. There is open architectural space, symbolic of exploration and the new. There are solids of concentrated energy. Colors are strong. I wish to emulate the magic of the music of Bach.