Following the announcement of her illustration, artist Jenna Gribbon not too long ago made her debut at MASSIMODECARLO’s Milan location with a brand new physique of labor that enters into an unexpectedly aesthetic and resonant dialogue with the gallery’s luxurious interiors on the historic Casa Corbellini‑Wassermann—a rationalist-style residence constructed by architect Piero Portaluppi—whereas concurrently asserting its personal narrative. In her work, concepts about human relationships and the human situation are revealed in depictions of conduct set in probably the most intimate home areas.
Right here, the New York-based artist furthers her ongoing exploration of the infinite prospects of illustration by way of an investigation of sunshine and its sources, which she started in her earlier exhibition on the gallery’s London location, her first since becoming a member of the roster. “I used to be undoubtedly grappling with the character of actuality, which seems like shifting sand as of late,” Gribbon informed Observer, her voice rising. She invited her spouse, musician Mackenzie Ruth Scott, to write down a extra poetic textual content for the exhibition as a result of she didn’t need to demystify the work. “What I’m getting at on this work is a bit past what I’m in a position to put into phrases.”
Within the textual content accompanying Gribbon’s work, Scott displays on the thought of the invisibility of every part that lies past our notion—even past the electromagnetic spectrum of sunshine she explored in her earlier present. On this new physique of labor, Gribbon is tapping right into a extra non secular, emotional and common realm and shifting her focus towards what’s extra invisible than seen within the illustration of human figures and in the way in which we understand actuality.
The themes in Milan really feel far much less confrontational, as in the event that they’ve turned inward, disengaging from the surface world to dwell in a extra intimate house of emotion and internal life. As Gribbon explains, whereas it was as soon as necessary to her that the work be clear and direct about how they functioned, she has now turn out to be extra comfy with ambiguity. “In earlier works, I wished to drag again the curtain on all the mechanisms I used to be utilizing to focus on the connection between topic and viewer,” she mirrored. “I nonetheless need these work to be legible, however on this physique of labor, I gravitated towards imagery that takes time to decipher.”
Even the titles have taken on a quieter, extra enigmatic tone, guiding us towards one thing softer, extra mysterious or attuned to the internal self—fairly than merely reflecting exterior actuality as perceived by the senses and translated by the comb. “Plenty of my titles over time consult with the way in which that gentle influences notion,” she stated, pointing to earlier solo exhibits like “After I Checked out You the Gentle Modified” and “Mirages.” However on this exhibition, she goes additional, reaching towards one thing largely ineffable or imperceptible. The extremely evocative title “Rainbows in Shadows” emerges from these reflections. “What I like in regards to the thought of a rainbow in shadow is the impossibility of the factor. A rainbow wants gentle to exist. So if a rainbow exists in shadow, it’s magic. I feel these work are a seek for magic within the shadows.”
This complete physique of labor is a departure from extra self-contained explorations towards a broader reflection on the bounds and bounds of the human situation and expertise. “I’ve been specializing in the microcosm of my own residence as a refuge from all the horrors of the surface world,” Gribbon stated, as if the internal world have been the one remaining sanctuary for care and affection amid the present state of chaos. “These are work about dwelling vividly in darkish occasions.”
But whereas the main target of this present is in that sense myopic, its themes of household and domesticity are deeply common—the primary anchors many attain for within the seek for that means amid the fragility of the human situation. “I used to be attempting to make use of the small stage of my dwelling to explain one thing a lot bigger,” she defined. “A sense of marvel and fascination with day-to-day interconnection, and an engagement with the train of seeing each other on a continuing foundation.”
Most of the new work flash like recollections or blurred postcards from the previous, urgent towards the bounds of sensory expertise and our means to carry onto fleeting moments that reside in different dimensions of that means, usually past the bodily or perceptible. “After I’m staring laborious at one thing I’m portray, I usually see actually vivid colours buried below different colours that subdue them,” Gribbon confessed. “In making these work, I did this very literal factor of pulling ahead the colours which can be more durable to see.”
Right here, her topics usually confront themselves in mirrors earlier than assembly the viewer’s gaze, additional complicating the longstanding narrative of the male gaze and the passive feminine topic in artwork historical past. What she paints now are ladies turned inward, trying to find a deeper, internal energetic supply. And but, as Gribbon continues to stage these intimate, nearly secret small rituals of care and love shared along with her companion, one thing important about human nature is subtly revealed.
All through the present, the viewer is caught between intimacy and voyeurism or between picture consumption and manufacturing and left in a fragile house of emotional and psychological ambiguity, because the moments Gribbon brings to life resist easy narrative studying. “I’m at all times searching for methods to offer the viewer a brand new expertise with trying,” she stated. “My hope is that somebody partaking with my work can sense my humanity in the way in which I’ve seen my topic and labored the paint, and on the identical time join with the humanity of my topics.”
For her, portray turns into an train in human studying that transcends anthropology or psychology—an act of empathy geared toward capturing each the essence and the decision of a person soul, located inside the bigger entanglement of lives and existences from which that means emerges. “As a result of empathy is revelatory and profound,” she asserted, affirming her perception that portray and artwork extra broadly are an extension of our capability to grasp others and the world. A mix of imaginative and empathic forces, able to translating the deepest truths of her topics—even those they themselves could not totally acknowledge and may wrestle to think about.
What Gribbon seeks to seize by way of the sensual, tactile medium of portray is the delicate energetic aura every of us carries, consciously or not, and which tends to disclose itself solely after we transfer past an individualistic lens to method the world with emotional and non secular openness. Empathy for different people, dwelling beings and the universe at giant is revealed as what makes a extra soulful, heartfelt way of life doable.
“It’s like once you do psychedelic medication and all of a sudden one thing mundane is revealed as poignant,” Gribbon stated, describing the form of sudden epiphany that may come up from one thing as odd as a cup on a desk. “You may see that it’s sitting in an ideal method, accompanied by a close-by object that’s creating an ideal colour relationship.” Any such reflection echoes these of Black Elk, the Lakota Sioux medication man, who as soon as stated that peace involves the souls of males after they notice their relationship—their oneness—with the universe and all its powers, and after they perceive that on the middle of the universe dwells the Nice Spirit, and that this middle is basically in every single place, inside every of us.
“It’s not that the magic wasn’t there earlier than; it simply required a sure form of consideration to be perceived,” the artist concluded. “Portray is very good at framing issues which may in any other case be missed and revealing their hidden magic.”
Jenna Gribbon’s “Rainbow in Shadows” is on view at MASSIMODECARLO in Milan by way of September 6, 2025.
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