Artist Feature: Jennifer Nehrbass
Currently Available:
"North Fork," 2020, 24" x 18", $3200
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What if women were the pioneers of the West? Would our relationship with Native Americans be different? What about our impact on the environment? What would our society look like today had our region been founded under a matriarchy?
These are a few questions raised by Jennifer Nehrbass’ current series, the Pioneer Project, which examines the European exploration of the West through a female perspective. Idealized landscapes and female portraits together tell fictional narratives that raise real questions. For Nehrbass, the series doesn’t necessarily push a political agenda; it simply aims to tell a story while sparking an intriguing dialogue.
“Generally, when we walk into a museum of the West or exhibition of Western history, we see the same thing,” says Nehrbass. “There are large portraits of generals or male explorers, heroic and overly romanticized landscapes painted by men, and then a few artifacts. Which made me think …what if women were the pioneers? What would this look like?”
Nehrbass’ female portraits are her protagonists; they are the explores and the documentarians while her landscapes are idealized vistas seen through their eyes. The women are different races and ethnicities, a mix of different times and influences that aesthetically blend elements of hyperrealism, graphic illustration and textile design. Landscapes emit an idealized, Garden of Eden quality; from a distance, the compositions flow seamlessly while closer observation reveals unexpected stoppage, blurred details or mismatched colors. Working from photographs and a collagelike process, Nehrbass draws inspiration from various locations, merging the images into a contrived landscape.
The assembled visuals in Nehrbass’ landscapes, along with the bold patterning in her portraits, stem from the artist’s first career. Nehrbass went to school for fine art and textile design, which included a semester abroad in Italy and then a year at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. After graduating, Nehrbass landed a job at Ralph Lauren where she worked for 10 years as a design director in the Home Collection. She is now a full time professional artist living in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Studio Visit:
Artist Interview…
You sometimes refer to “Womanfest Destiny” in relation to your Pioneer Project paintings. Can you expand on this concept and how it is illustrated in your work?
"Womanfest Destiny" is a play off of manifest destiny which has proven to be destructive at times to the natural and cultural aspects of the west. I ask, what if women created their vision of destiny with a different approach to environment and cultures?
You experiment with compositions digitally or though collage before you translate them to canvas, correct? Tell us about that process and how the work shifts or changes as it becomes a painting.
Yes I work both digitally and with physical collage at a small scale and then translate that image to a larger canvas. I try to get the collage as perfect as possible. Sometimes that is a direct translation, other times I need to change certain elements to create my vision of the work. I use source images as part of creating the perfect vista. Generally people will post only the 'best" images they have of a landscape, sometimes altering them with filters. I like to take this a step further to create the ultimate vista that cannot be found anywhere else - my utopia of landscape and abstraction.
Do you reference specific places in your landscapes or are they meant to solely represent imaginative utopias?
The environments I create ask the question - what is a true depiction of nature? We rely on memory and stylized photos. I just take this one step further. Almost fantasy, almost believable.
Can you walk us through your typical commission process for those interested in purchasing a painting?
Commissions work best if there is a previous work a client responds to. You provide a size and any other color requests, and I work through 2-3 digital collages with maybe 1-2 alterations. Once you are happy and give the final approval the painting is started, and I send maybe one or two in-progress shots to make sure we’re on track. Typically 50% deposit is made at the time of commission and the remaining 50% is due upon final approval.
