Jen DeLuna

Jen DeLuna received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in 2021. Through her paintings, she explores the moments of vulnerability that are confessed through figures and animals. Her recent solo exhibition, Dust and Sweat and Feigning Grace (Storage Gallery; Manhattan, NY), was reviewed by Family Style, White Hot Magazine, and Yale Radio. Her recent exhibitions include Ghost Dance at IRL Gallery (Manhattan, NY) and Forest Bathing at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (New Haven, CT). She is currently based in Boston, MA. 

Collect Bean x The Art Kollective: What does growth mean to you? 

Jen DeLuna: Pushing yourself and embracing change. 

Collect Bean x The Art Kollective:  What role does art play in society, and how does your work contribute to that? 

Jen DeLuna: Art gives us the opportunity to reflect, respond, and/or influence. I think it’s better for others to describe my work’s contributions; I only really know its role in my life. 

Collect Bean x The Art Kollective: How do you see your artwork fitting into the larger art world or art history? 

Jen DeLuna: I believe that the work I’m creating will be reflective of the time. We’re at a moment that feels rife with instability – economic, political, environmental. This uncertainty infuses many of the works I’ve seen recently with a sense of impermanence and ambivalence. Artists are drawing from nostalgic and dreamlike elements, perhaps as a way of reconnecting with the safe and familiar or exploring different realities that provide solace. 

Collect Bean x The Art Kollective: If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? 

Jen DeLuna: Just keep doing it. Someone gets to live your dream; if you never try, it’ll never be you. 

Collect Bean x The Art Kollective:  If you had to describe your work in only three words, what would they be? 

Jen DeLuna: Tenderness, Fear, Power.