Jen Graham: My Presidents
My Presidents is a series of hand-embroidered portraits of every past president of the United States of America. Created by artist Jen Graham, the series intends to uncover forgotten biographies and dismantle deeply-entrenched myths, with the hope of coming to a greater understanding of our current political and social state as a nation. According to the artist, “I am interested in the legacies of these men. Not necessarily what they are most commonly known for, but what I found to be truly fundamental about their presidencies, how their personalities shaped our country, and what kind of a people they were as president. I have given each president a nickname that I feel more accurately describes them -- as a president and a man -- than those nicknames which history has already bestowed upon them. A short nickname is, of course, an oversimplification of the complicated biographies of these men. The intention of the work is not to be all-encompassing, but rather to focus on reflection and reclaiming agency. The nickname accompanies their sewn portrait, using my voice and a traditionally women’s medium to re-tell the history of men in power in the United States. These are not classical oil paintings of our country’s leaders, but folk-influenced portraits of men who become humanized through the tradition of embroidery, hopefully providing a better understanding of their experiences as presidents.”
The first 43 presidents were completed between 2009 and 2011. The 44th president (President Barack Obama) was added in 2020.