“Cling on a second.” The painter Jenna Gribbon fiddles together with her cellphone over FaceTime, then switches her digital camera to front-facing, revealing her Brooklyn studio, crammed with the everyday detritus of a visible artist’s workspace: jars of brushes, half-squeezed bottles of paint, stacks of canvases. Gribbon, a Georgia native now based mostly in New York Metropolis, wished to point out me one work specifically—a large-scale canvas that will probably be included in her subsequent solo present, Like Trying in a Mirror, which opens at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles on September 13 (by way of October 19). Within the portray, two individuals who appear to be Gribbon—lengthy brown hair, sleepy eyes, dignified bone construction—stand beside one another. One is hanging up lights, whereas the opposite is taking an image. They appear to be an identical twins. In reality, “it’s my son holding the sunshine, and me taking the photograph,” the artist says. “He’s type of my little doppelganger.”
Gribbon’s 13-year-old youngster, their dynamic, and her expertise with what she describes because the “psychedelic” and “trippy” expertise of motherhood are all central themes in Like Trying in a Mirror. “I’m seizing on this little window in time the place he appears to be like extra like me than he ever will,” she provides, noting that they’ve the identical coiffure. “He’s on this androgynous state, the place he doesn’t fairly appear to be a toddler anymore, however he’s not precisely wanting like a person but.”
Jenna Gribbon, A mirrored image held, 2024
Photograph by Jeff Henrikson
Throughout this pivotal second in his life, Gribbon is integrating her son into her work for the primary time—and likewise portraying herself within the works. The thought of mirroring the topic and artist, reflecting the self towards and towards different individuals, has been a key a part of Gribbon’s creative apply since 2006, when she first gained notoriety for being commissioned to create three portraits for the set of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Previous reveals on the Museum of Up to date Artwork Jacksonville and the Trendy Artwork Museum of Fort Value have consisted of portraits of her spouse, Mackenzie Scott, the principle topic in a lot of Gribbon’s most well-known works. Mirror is a stark departure from that collection.
Maison Margiela shirt; Fee denims; Edgar Mosa necklace; Comme Si socks; JW Anderson footwear.
Photograph by Jeff Henrikson
“It’s much more difficult as a result of not solely is the parent-child relationship arguably essentially the most intimate relationship there may be, it’s further powerful to actually see children for themselves and never get your individual self-concept entwined in the way you view them,” she says. Gribbon explores this idea in items the place her son has projected an image of his mom onto himself, then snapped a photograph; Gribbon makes use of that picture as a place to begin for the work. “The expertise of seeing your self, exterior of your self, in one other completely separate human being, with their very own world, makes you consider what’s necessary to you and what’s significant to share,” she says. “What do you need to move down? What do you need to replicate and what do you need to not replicate? It turns into a means of assessing your individual values, too.”
Together with the large-format work, there will probably be one other group of smaller works that zero in on all of the issues she’s handed all the way down to him: a household recipe, or books she’s learn and beloved. “I gave him a CD participant and a stack of my outdated CDs,” she says with satisfaction. “It’s a shared sensory expertise. Not solely does this individual share your genetics, in addition they share an expertise of what meals tastes like, or the way to make one thing.”
Gribbon has been engaged on the work for Mirror over the course of 1 yr. Throughout that point, she’s discovered to provide her inside youngster a little bit extra grace. “You might have a lot empathy in your child that it turns into empathy for your self,” she says. “You look again at your self and sure issues that you just possibly disliked, however then you definately see them in your youngster, too. And you’ve got a lot love for them that you just’re in a position to create space for much more love.”
Fee trench coat; Maison Margiela shirt; Fee denims; Edgar Mosa necklace; Comme Si socks; JW Anderson footwear.
Photograph by Jeff Henrikson
Nonetheless, the artist is not only in these works metaphorically. “I’m current within the work as his guardian,” she says. “You possibly can take in the picture of my youngster, however I will probably be watching you. I’m additionally right here. He’s not on this alone.”
Fee blazer, prime, and denims; Edgar Mosa necklace; G.H. Bass footwear.
Photograph by Jeff Henrikson
Styling assistants: Celeste Roh and Maia Wilson.
