Rachel Jendrzejewski, beloved daughter of the gallery owners, Amy and Andy, passed away on July 14, 2025. She was a contemporary playwright, an actor, a writer, a visual artist, and singer, who explored the mystery of reality through her art. This exhibition was a snapshot of her character, life, and work. She approached her art from many points of view, questioning the nature of our relationships to the world and to each other. She probed the status quo of the tired 'walls' of life's conventions and commercial superficialities, that blind so many of us. This happened even as she faced the frightening limit of her own existence, measured by the phases of the moon to her last days. In her last years she worked intensively with members of the dance group, Supergroup, and as Assistant Artistic Director at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis and with independent artists between hospital stays.
Rachel’s career really began as a child. Her older sister, Ingrid, acting as director, would put together plays with she and Rachel as actors, sometimes accompanied by a "cast" of friends. Her parents and grandparents videotaped these plays, which often grew into elaborate productions. Her first public performance was with Vincennes’ Old Town Players when she was five or six.
Rachel graduated from Lincoln High School in 2000, where she especially enjoyed participating in music and theater productions. She attended Hamilton College, Azusa Pacific University (BA Theatre Arts) and Brown University (MFA Playwriting). During her college years she traveled around the world with Carpenter’s Tools International, a music performance-based outreach program.
Rachel was a writer, performance maker and arts administrator. She collaborated on work across the U.S. and internationally. Honors include Playwrights’ Center Jerome and McKnight Fellowships as well as grants from the Dramatists Guild Foundation, PEN America, Network of Ensemble Theaters and Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Residencies included the University of Minnesota Institute for Advanced Study, Weisman Art Museum, MASS MoCA and Everwood Farmstead. She was a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. She served on staff at Cornerstone Theater Company (Los Angeles), The Grotowski Institute (Poland), and Upstream Arts (Minneapolis). She was a Co-Artistic Director at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis.
In her work Rachel frequently collaborated with choreographers, musicians and visual artists. Her work was developed and/or presented by the Walker Art Center, Red Eye Theater, Public Functionary, In the Heart of the Beast, Padua Playwrights, Los Angeles Performance Practice, Tricklock Company, Joe’s Pub at The NY Public Theater, The Wild Project, Rhode Island School of Design, A.R.T. and ICA/Boston among others. Published texts include MERONYMY (53rd State Press), encyclopedia (Spout Press), IN WHICH _______ AND OTHERS DISCOVER THE END (a collaboration with SuperGroup; Plays Inverse/53rd State Press), and Amber (in the anthology I Might Be the Person You Are Talking To: Short Plays from the Los Angeles Underground, Padua Playwrights).
As a result of her wide-ranging experiences, Rachel’s work suggests numerous ways to examine, perceive, and write about the world and our lives. She suggests different perceptions of realities and alternative conclusions regarding what we take in.
Many people followed her Ten-Year Project on Instagram, consisting of a statement posted each time she took her daily dose of Tomoxifen, a 10-year prescription started in 2018. These entries ranged from observations of nature to inscrutable poetic musings.
Her last major work, Traces, a play for an audience of one, was released in 2024. It was inspired by the life and work of French conceptual artist Sophie Calle and coincided with an exhibition overview of Calle’s life and work at the Walker Art Museum.
