2022-23
60 x 48", oil, oil stick and glitter on canvas

HEAVENLY BODIES
Who are these lingering ghosts that we vaguely feel haunting our bodies, reaching out from the past to influence our actions and distort our vision? Through articulation, is it possible to reclaim power and agency over their influence, while also celebrating their wisdom and support? Part offerings of gratitude, part exorcisms, these joyfully excessive and texturally rich paintings are the remnants of an intuitive and improvised
process that unfolds over months, sometimes years. Their surfaces are covered with thick layers of oil stick that are scraped into, buried in glitter, smeared and massaged by hand, covered in sand, embedded with confetti, wiped down and then piled up again until they start to achieve a living presence. They ultimately aim to heal by bringing light into the darkest places within myself, and by acting as vessels where contradictory energies and selves can find balance and coexist.

TESS JENKINS (b. 1986, Albany, NY) uses painting as a tool of investigation to better understand our infinitely complicated, multi-layered body systems, how we relate to them, and how they affect our senses of self. She received a Fine Arts Diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is a 2023 participant in NYC Crit Club’s year-long intensive mentorship The Canopy Program. Recent group exhibitions include The Pit (Palm Springs, CA), Unpaved Gallery (Yucca Valley, CA) and Compound YV (Yucca Valley, CA). She currently lives and works in Flamingo Heights, CA, in the Mojave Desert.