Jessica Lichtenstein

Using the female body as a mechanism to explore deeper themes of power, female representation, fetishism and objectification, usually in an ironic and cheerful way, Lichtenstein's work embodies the very paradox she is trying to explore. Her work consciously plays with the boundaries of power, commercialization, consumerism, fantasy and propriety, provoking tensions that challenge the viewer to confront his or her own gaze.

Lichtenstein is most known for creating landscape pieces infused with women as the foliage of trees, in order to investigate the simultaneous anonymity and specificity of the female characters. The faceless, repeating effeminate forms represent both the community of women in the world and the individual characteristics that make up a single woman. Varied body positions differentiate each figure and yet harmoniously contribute to the texture of the leafy, vibrant tree that unifies

them. In 2020, Lichtenstein presented a new series of concrete hearts bursting with engraved lockets, Lichtenstein's first sculptural body of work and a drastic departure from her figurative art. Lichtenstein's hearts explore feelings at the limit of human vocabulary through plaster heart sculptures, cracking and overflowing with engraved lockets. Foregoing traditional platitudes of love for complicated, contradictory phrases, each locket attempts to truthfully.