Jennifer Presant

My paintings address the complexity of memory, by blurring and questioning the lines between recollection, projection, and reality. Each painting becomes a psychological landscape or waking dream, examining the notion what’s real. The shifting environments become a metaphor for the transience of our experience and the indelible impressions they leave in us.

My new body of work thematically addresses the cycle of life. They are about aging, parenthood, and transformation. I use natural and endangered landscapes as metaphors for our fragile, yet beautiful, ever-changing existence. There is a sense of longing and nostalgia for these places, those around us and our previous selves. We stand vulnerable in the face of external elements, over which we have no control.

I often use deconstructed depictions of a room – a white cube – as a starting point for my imagery. I transform the room by using projections of various places or figures on the walls, in essence creating a virtual extension of the space. By combining layers of images, I explore how each painting can be transformed to create an experience that is multilayered and time-based for the viewer. The voyeuristic perspective is heightened by the paintings artificial construction and we become conscious of our physical and emotional presence. Each work becomes a sanctuary to contemplate our relationship to nature and ourselves.

Email: jenniferpresant@mac.com

Website: http://www.jenniferpresant.com

Instagram:  @jenniferpresant

Shop Evanston Made: Jennifer Presant