Jennifer Nehrbass
Albuquerque, NM
USA
Jennifer Nehrbass is painter living and working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was born in West Bend, Wisconsin in 1970. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in both Art and Textile Design from the University of Wisconsin, an MA in Painting from New York University, and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Her work is represented by the Brunnhofer Gallery in Linz, Austria, and the Julie Nester Gallery in Park City, Utah.
Feminist Artist Statement
In our cultural desire for flash and attention, advertising can be a potent and seductive means of identity formation – a fantasy aggressively expanding its value as a commodity beyond the means for any real satisfaction. This series of paintings focuses on style as a sublime element of tension within beauty. Thematically they evoke modern dilemmas of what it means to see and be seen in manner that is simultaneously ancient and contemporary. Ambiguity, realism and fantasy play atmospherically in a narrative moment akin to magic realism.
These paintings speak to forbidden thoughts and desires and also suggest that what is hidden and forbidden inside the painting is ultimately denied to the viewer. What the paintings yield is an intimacy of time and place that meanders through rich details and nuanced perplexity – bafflement being as necessary to the experience of viewing as is delicate reasoning.
Delilah y Delilah
This painting places the viewer in a construct of a garden where we see the recreation of the biblical story of “Samson and Delilah”. In this reinterpretation we see Delilah and Delilah. The play between play and pain is ambiguous.
Delilah y Delilah
This painting places the viewer in a construct of a garden where we see the recreation of the biblical story of “Samson and Delilah”. In this reinterpretation we see Delilah and Delilah. The play between play and pain is ambiguous.
Exiting Empire
In this work the figure has the appearance of a pin up girl, but is posed like a sphinx. Her surreal environment is a contrast between the conscious body and the unconscious mind.
On the Banks of the Rhine
This painting plays with cultural folklore. One in particular is the story of Lorelei along the Rhine river. The figure in the painting is depicted as if a living statue, a mythological creature come to life.
Perils of Quiet Conventions
This reclining nude references historical painting. The figure is fractured and is placed in a fabricated environment. The titillating aspects of a nude are subverted with cut and paste breasts and the image a mouth covering the genitalia.
Clean As Pauline
The figure is poised as a pin up girl. Here the use of saran wrap replaces the clothing, allowing the viewer to see the transparent attempt to clothe herself. This work alludes to current cultures obsessive need to preserve oneself from aging.
Personal Waterloo
A woman screaming in an oval painting. This painting is part of a series of “Cameo” paintings based on the story “The Penelopiad” by Margaret Atwood.
Water at the Door
A reinterpretation of Rembrandt’s, “A Women Bathing in a Stream” 1654. Here the woman is self conscious wading through a stream of abstraction.
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Contact
Albuquerque, NM
USA
CV
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