Jenna Gribbon: Entwined

The Rose Art Museum is proud to present Jenna Gribbon: Entwined, the first major solo museum exhibition of paintings by Jenna Gribbon (b. 1978, Knoxville, TN). Bringing together more than forty works created between 2001 and the present, the exhibition traces the evolution of Gribbon’s distinctive approach to figurative painting, from early experimental works to ambitious new canvases made specially for this survey. Best known for her intimate portrayals of family, friends, and especially her wife, musician Mackenzie Scott (TORRES), Gribbon creates paintings that blur the boundaries between artist and subject, viewer and participant, observation and performance. Through luminous color, inventive compositions, and emotionally charged imagery, her work transforms everyday moments into complex reflections on love, desire, memory, and perception.

Organized chronologically and thematically, Entwined reveals how Gribbon’s relationships, grounded in reciprocity, care, and radical empathy, shape her paintings. Expanding beyond familiar readings of her work as depictions of queer domestic life and desire, the exhibition highlights how Gribbon uses painting to explore the ways identity is formed through connection with others. Ultimately, the exhibition presents love and intimacy not simply as subject matter, but as the very foundation of Gribbon’s artistic practice, suggesting that love itself structures how we see, understand, and define one another.

Jenna Gribbon: Entwined is co-curated by Chad Sirois and Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator, and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Lead support for the exhibition is generously provided by Further Forward Foundation. Major support is provided by Wolf Kahn Foundation, with additional support from Heather and Theodore Karatz. Special thanks to David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles and New York; Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York, London; and MASSIMODECARLO, Milan, London, Hong Kong, Paris.