AboutJaime Ekkens was born in South Korea and adopted by American parents in Grand Rapids Michigan. Having received a BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design majoring in Illustration in 2007, she moved to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts and successfully pursued her MFA in Computer Arts.
Professional experiences include freelance animator, video editor, associate producer, special effects supervisor, gallery assistant, film distribution assistant, and camera on live action shoots. Noteworthy internships include VH1's On-Air Graphics department and the adult swim show Venture Brothers. After graduation from SVA, Ekkens was an Associate Producer and in-house Motion Graphics Artist for Mark Haefeli Productions. Following that an Animation Curator and Motion Graphics Artist for Big Screen Plaza, an outdoor arts venue in Chelsea for 2 years. Upon the dissolve of Big Screen Plaza, Ekkens was a freelance After Effects Artist for Prudential Advertising for 3 years while simultaneously completing and promoting her first independent short film “A Life with Asperger's”. The film went on an enormously successful film festival run, making it into over 80 international film festivals in countries across the globe. Additionally, "A Life with Asperger's" was also chosen to tour the US with Reel Abilities and Sprout Film Festival, eventually ending in distribution with Sprout Media. The short aired on Sydney Public Access in Australia a year after premiering with Sydney Underground Film Festival and enjoyed a short stint on VOD in Sprout Media's block. |
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3 more independent short films followed - All while juggling near constant freelance work including the award-winning short "Suffering is the Easy Part", which was a collaboration with accomplished writer and friend, Loren Kleinman. "Suffering is the Easy Part" enjoys educational distribution via Docademia, video on demand service that offers the best in social documentary packaged for educators. The film also was recently picked up by Seed & Spark's online platform.
More recent clients include the fashion blog Refinery 29, where Ekkens was an After Effects animator with R29's NewFronts presentation, animated, designed and illustrated 2 branded content videos for Murad Skin Care, and helped launch R29's snapchat channel. Yahoo! Studios where she worked on motion graphics for the Katie Couric's web show "Now I Get It" and Joe Zee's correspondence for Fashion Week Spring 2016. Ekkens was the lead motion designer branding the video channels for Seriously.tv and RatedRed.com, a joint venture with Hearst Digital and Verizon.
She was part of the 3 person design team that worked to update the show package for ABC's "The Chew". From there, Ekkens worked with the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign on 2 online ads featuring Nyle DiMarco for 'Get Out the Vote!'. Upon completion, she freelanced for CBS News as an After Effects Artist, primarily working on featured stories for air on "CBS This Morning." Ekkens followed up by another freelance stint at Yahoo! Studios for more Fashion Week Fall 2016 in addition to other projects like show opens for Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Politics.
She also was able to complete a 1 minute short, "Colonic Adventures", for The Dumb Sh*t Show- anti-film festival, curated by friends Twins Are Weird, which premiered in Brooklyn summer 2016. Ekkens finished her first live-action narrative short film "The Mall" starring Olivia Killingsworth, who also served as a co-producer. "The Mall" is a short story monologue written by Mary Crosby which was converted into a script. Also in post is a live-action short, shot cinema veritei style and partially on a go-pro, while volunteering in Thailand with elephants with the Surin Project. Film stills from her auto-biographical short "The Complete Circle" were featured in a curated group art show in Manhattan's financial district as part of Animation Nights New York - Best of Year festival celebrations.
Ekkens began 2017 with a freelance project with Nickelodeon, where she was After Effects Artist on network UpFronts presentation, keying 4K green screen footage for slide transitions and animating slide designs for 3D projection mapping presentation. Upon completion of project, she returned to advertising with a small freelance gig with Townhouse, the production company under Grey Advertising and another short stint at CBS News for more work on CBS This Morning. Come April Ekkens was back at Yahoo! Studios before returning to Hearst for more animation work with Complex. She was an animator on the Pigions and Planes show "What Had Happened Was..." An interview show focusing on untold stories with Hip Hop culture's influential artists. In the fall of 2017, Ekkens added A&E Networks, NBC Sports, and Food Network to the resume in addition to more CBS News. Ekkens' 2018 entry into LASS: Ladies Animated Short Screening, is a 3 min. experimental film which is written, performed and staring by Sore Agbaje, will screen in New York City was completed in Nov. 2017.
Ekkens completed her first artist residency during the month of December 2017 in Beijing, China with Red Gate Gallery. Her first show in China featured 13 black and white printed photographs of Chinese workers, portraits of people and places she observed while traveling in Beijing and Shanghai. In addition to the art on the walls, she did a film screenings of all of her short films for the Open Studios.
Ekkens started January 2018 back in New York City at Cycle Media, working on Snapchat content for Eurosports coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics. After the Olympics were over, she worked on a feature documentary called “Hope and Fury” about the civil rights movement in the 1960's that aired on MSNBC in March 2018 before landing at ABC News' Digital department as a freelance Motion Graphics person up until August.
In September 2018, she moved to Iceland from Brooklyn to take part in a three month artist in residence program in Skagastrond, Iceland. During her time in Iceland Ekkens finished a short film “Cross Oceans, Dilute Cultures”, the second collaboration with Sore Agbaje and showed it at the end of September at the monthly Open House. Other new works finished in September included a series of graphite drawings on bristol board drawn from photographs taken in South East Asia and a video installation shot on location around Lake Myvatn's geothermal mud pots in north Iceland were also on display.
For October's Open Studios her installation was a looping 20 min slide show of still photography taken around Iceland, in addition to more drawings of the same South East Asia series. Ekkens also screened her two completed films “Suffering is the Easy Part” and “The War” to the audience in Iceland.
In November, Ekkens collaborated with another artist in residence, a musician, for music video titled Hybrid. The song was written during the residency and the video was shot in the studio space and edited for November's Open House. In addition to the music video, Ekkens also cut a 15 minute looping installation using footage shot from various cultural events and noteworthy places she witnessed in Iceland as video journal. Hanging on the walls in the studio space were 17 finished graphite drawings she completed during her artist in residence program.
After Iceland, Ekkens moved to Shanghai, China in December 2018 to pursue another residency with Untitled, an artist run gallery space and studio program. She completed 18 finished collages with drawing from photographs taken in China and materials collected from around Shanghai. The work was exhibited at Untitled's gallery space in the water town Zhujiazhao at the end of January 2019 with fellow artist-in-residence Nancy Lungsford and Jessica Orek.
Upon completion of her third artist residency Ekkens moved to Taiwan for three months. She successfully completed the TEFL teacher training required to teach English as a foreign language and volunteered on an organic farm outside of Tainan for two months learning about cooking and growing food in a sustainable way.
In May 2019, Ekkens' was back in Shanghai to participate in A Art's Citizen's Art Fair as an “Urban Up-and-Coming Artist.” Selected and exhibited work included the series of graphite rendering of South East Asia and the collage pieces that were completed in Zhujiazhao.
After Citizens Art Fair, Ekkens received her first solo exhibition at Emptiness, a space in the French Concession. Following that, the same organizers of the art fair, A Arts, also curated Ekkens' art in a group show at M50, Shanghai's famous creative park, withTaofang Studio in June 2019.
In August, she launched the bi-weekly screening series “Shanghai Shorts” at the Museum of Creative Minds. Every other Tuesday, “Shanghai Shorts” screens hour long shorts programs feature a variety of different film genres, styles and techniquesin the evenings to a live Shanghai audience. Ekkens serves as chief curator, programming other artist and filmmakers, as well as organizing open calls. She also designs the social media posters for the event.
In September 2019, Ekkens had her second solo exhibition with Creative Shelter. The exhibition, titled “Liquid Courage,” was an immersive experience celebrating drinking culture around the world and the speakeasy as a mode of underground expression. On display were original posters, satirically designed to mimic real liquor bottle logos, some with famous quotes about alcohol from Sammy Davis Jr. and Jack London. The visuals and writing were a play on the absurdest humor of internet memes. Also on display, a series of photography presented as an installation titled “I Love the Night Life” The photographs were collected and curated from the last 7 years of travel and installed suspended from the ceiling at different lengths to give the viewer the experience of walking into an instagram feed. At the opening, guided mediation was lead by Creative Shelter and an improvised vocal performance was lead by improviser performance artist Viola.
Also in September, one of Ekkens' art pieces was selected to be published in A Shanghai Poetry Zine, as well as exhibited and presented at the magazine's launch event September, 21 2019. She spoke about her time in Shanghai as an artist in residence and the concept of art, her process and materials used and inspiration for making the art work.
She is currently preparing for a three part animated screening series honoring women in animation with Mao Art Space in Shanghai as both a curator, artist and guest speaker.
She is in production on 2 short films, "Unexplained Infertility", which was shot partially on location in Maine and "Immigrate Stories" which is currently being shot in various locations around New York City."Immigrate Stories" consists of interviews with all types of immigrates, from all over the world, exploring the similarities among stories and seeking to humanize a very political issue.
Ekkens served on the Board of Directors of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH for 4 years (2009 - 2013) where she was co-chaired Metro CAF, a student showcase for local New York City college and graduate level student animation for 2 year and helped put together the monthly work-in-progress screening showcase "Bring Your Own Animation".
She continues to work in the motion graphics industry while directing and producing independent short films that screen all over the world.
She loves international travel, cooking and studying foreign languages.
More recent clients include the fashion blog Refinery 29, where Ekkens was an After Effects animator with R29's NewFronts presentation, animated, designed and illustrated 2 branded content videos for Murad Skin Care, and helped launch R29's snapchat channel. Yahoo! Studios where she worked on motion graphics for the Katie Couric's web show "Now I Get It" and Joe Zee's correspondence for Fashion Week Spring 2016. Ekkens was the lead motion designer branding the video channels for Seriously.tv and RatedRed.com, a joint venture with Hearst Digital and Verizon.
She was part of the 3 person design team that worked to update the show package for ABC's "The Chew". From there, Ekkens worked with the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign on 2 online ads featuring Nyle DiMarco for 'Get Out the Vote!'. Upon completion, she freelanced for CBS News as an After Effects Artist, primarily working on featured stories for air on "CBS This Morning." Ekkens followed up by another freelance stint at Yahoo! Studios for more Fashion Week Fall 2016 in addition to other projects like show opens for Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Politics.
She also was able to complete a 1 minute short, "Colonic Adventures", for The Dumb Sh*t Show- anti-film festival, curated by friends Twins Are Weird, which premiered in Brooklyn summer 2016. Ekkens finished her first live-action narrative short film "The Mall" starring Olivia Killingsworth, who also served as a co-producer. "The Mall" is a short story monologue written by Mary Crosby which was converted into a script. Also in post is a live-action short, shot cinema veritei style and partially on a go-pro, while volunteering in Thailand with elephants with the Surin Project. Film stills from her auto-biographical short "The Complete Circle" were featured in a curated group art show in Manhattan's financial district as part of Animation Nights New York - Best of Year festival celebrations.
Ekkens began 2017 with a freelance project with Nickelodeon, where she was After Effects Artist on network UpFronts presentation, keying 4K green screen footage for slide transitions and animating slide designs for 3D projection mapping presentation. Upon completion of project, she returned to advertising with a small freelance gig with Townhouse, the production company under Grey Advertising and another short stint at CBS News for more work on CBS This Morning. Come April Ekkens was back at Yahoo! Studios before returning to Hearst for more animation work with Complex. She was an animator on the Pigions and Planes show "What Had Happened Was..." An interview show focusing on untold stories with Hip Hop culture's influential artists. In the fall of 2017, Ekkens added A&E Networks, NBC Sports, and Food Network to the resume in addition to more CBS News. Ekkens' 2018 entry into LASS: Ladies Animated Short Screening, is a 3 min. experimental film which is written, performed and staring by Sore Agbaje, will screen in New York City was completed in Nov. 2017.
Ekkens completed her first artist residency during the month of December 2017 in Beijing, China with Red Gate Gallery. Her first show in China featured 13 black and white printed photographs of Chinese workers, portraits of people and places she observed while traveling in Beijing and Shanghai. In addition to the art on the walls, she did a film screenings of all of her short films for the Open Studios.
Ekkens started January 2018 back in New York City at Cycle Media, working on Snapchat content for Eurosports coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics. After the Olympics were over, she worked on a feature documentary called “Hope and Fury” about the civil rights movement in the 1960's that aired on MSNBC in March 2018 before landing at ABC News' Digital department as a freelance Motion Graphics person up until August.
In September 2018, she moved to Iceland from Brooklyn to take part in a three month artist in residence program in Skagastrond, Iceland. During her time in Iceland Ekkens finished a short film “Cross Oceans, Dilute Cultures”, the second collaboration with Sore Agbaje and showed it at the end of September at the monthly Open House. Other new works finished in September included a series of graphite drawings on bristol board drawn from photographs taken in South East Asia and a video installation shot on location around Lake Myvatn's geothermal mud pots in north Iceland were also on display.
For October's Open Studios her installation was a looping 20 min slide show of still photography taken around Iceland, in addition to more drawings of the same South East Asia series. Ekkens also screened her two completed films “Suffering is the Easy Part” and “The War” to the audience in Iceland.
In November, Ekkens collaborated with another artist in residence, a musician, for music video titled Hybrid. The song was written during the residency and the video was shot in the studio space and edited for November's Open House. In addition to the music video, Ekkens also cut a 15 minute looping installation using footage shot from various cultural events and noteworthy places she witnessed in Iceland as video journal. Hanging on the walls in the studio space were 17 finished graphite drawings she completed during her artist in residence program.
After Iceland, Ekkens moved to Shanghai, China in December 2018 to pursue another residency with Untitled, an artist run gallery space and studio program. She completed 18 finished collages with drawing from photographs taken in China and materials collected from around Shanghai. The work was exhibited at Untitled's gallery space in the water town Zhujiazhao at the end of January 2019 with fellow artist-in-residence Nancy Lungsford and Jessica Orek.
Upon completion of her third artist residency Ekkens moved to Taiwan for three months. She successfully completed the TEFL teacher training required to teach English as a foreign language and volunteered on an organic farm outside of Tainan for two months learning about cooking and growing food in a sustainable way.
In May 2019, Ekkens' was back in Shanghai to participate in A Art's Citizen's Art Fair as an “Urban Up-and-Coming Artist.” Selected and exhibited work included the series of graphite rendering of South East Asia and the collage pieces that were completed in Zhujiazhao.
After Citizens Art Fair, Ekkens received her first solo exhibition at Emptiness, a space in the French Concession. Following that, the same organizers of the art fair, A Arts, also curated Ekkens' art in a group show at M50, Shanghai's famous creative park, withTaofang Studio in June 2019.
In August, she launched the bi-weekly screening series “Shanghai Shorts” at the Museum of Creative Minds. Every other Tuesday, “Shanghai Shorts” screens hour long shorts programs feature a variety of different film genres, styles and techniquesin the evenings to a live Shanghai audience. Ekkens serves as chief curator, programming other artist and filmmakers, as well as organizing open calls. She also designs the social media posters for the event.
In September 2019, Ekkens had her second solo exhibition with Creative Shelter. The exhibition, titled “Liquid Courage,” was an immersive experience celebrating drinking culture around the world and the speakeasy as a mode of underground expression. On display were original posters, satirically designed to mimic real liquor bottle logos, some with famous quotes about alcohol from Sammy Davis Jr. and Jack London. The visuals and writing were a play on the absurdest humor of internet memes. Also on display, a series of photography presented as an installation titled “I Love the Night Life” The photographs were collected and curated from the last 7 years of travel and installed suspended from the ceiling at different lengths to give the viewer the experience of walking into an instagram feed. At the opening, guided mediation was lead by Creative Shelter and an improvised vocal performance was lead by improviser performance artist Viola.
Also in September, one of Ekkens' art pieces was selected to be published in A Shanghai Poetry Zine, as well as exhibited and presented at the magazine's launch event September, 21 2019. She spoke about her time in Shanghai as an artist in residence and the concept of art, her process and materials used and inspiration for making the art work.
She is currently preparing for a three part animated screening series honoring women in animation with Mao Art Space in Shanghai as both a curator, artist and guest speaker.
She is in production on 2 short films, "Unexplained Infertility", which was shot partially on location in Maine and "Immigrate Stories" which is currently being shot in various locations around New York City."Immigrate Stories" consists of interviews with all types of immigrates, from all over the world, exploring the similarities among stories and seeking to humanize a very political issue.
Ekkens served on the Board of Directors of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH for 4 years (2009 - 2013) where she was co-chaired Metro CAF, a student showcase for local New York City college and graduate level student animation for 2 year and helped put together the monthly work-in-progress screening showcase "Bring Your Own Animation".
She continues to work in the motion graphics industry while directing and producing independent short films that screen all over the world.
She loves international travel, cooking and studying foreign languages.
Films • A Life with Asperger's (2013)
• Suffering is the Easy Part (2015) • The Complete Circle (2016) • Single Asian Female Online (2016) • Colonic Adventures (2016) • The Mall (2016) • The War (2017) • Cross Oceans Dilute Cultures (2018) |
Awards• 2005 District Level Gold Addy - Animation
• 2005 Regional Level Silver Addy - Illustration Silver Addy - Animation • 2006 Festival of the Arts - Film and Video Competition - Top Honors for Haunted • 2013 Best Animation - Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood • 2013 Best Documentary - Jury Award -Sacramento Music and Arts Festival • 2014 Best Animation - Nontzefilmak Short Film Competition • 2014 Best Writing - Craft Award - ASIFA EAST Awards • 2014 Indie - Award of Merit: Short Documentary - The Indie Fest • 2014 Manhattan Film Festival - Film Heals Award • 2014 Brazil Animate! - Second Place North America • 2016 Film Heals Award - Manhattan Film Festival • 2016 Best Writing - ASIFA East |