JENNY SINGLETON

About the Artist

Jenny Singleton paints vibrantly colored and richly detailed calligraphic abstractions. Her images seem to be contemporary but are tied to antiquity. They suggest dreams and totems, and sometimes address issues that move the artist strongly, but they always avoid explicit storytelling. A recurrent theme is the tension between creation and destruction, order and chaos.

She is influenced by traditional and contemporary art of the Islamic world, modern American painters such as Philip Taaffe, Thomas Nozkowski, and Charline von Heyl; as well as plants. She is especially attracted to contemporary art that builds on the long heritage of Arabic calligraphy, like the work of Shirin Neshat and Shahzia Sikander. These women have transcended cultural borders to make art rooted in their own traditions while addressing current issues for a global audience. From her Western perspective, she tries to inventively incorporate elements of the Mideastern art she loves in her own work.

Jenny Singleton is a Maryland-based painter with a background that includes degrees in Near East Studies from Princeton University and Arabic from Georgetown University. Always drawn to art, she began her career as a painter in 2011 and has exhibited widely across the United States. She has been a member at Touchstone Gallery since 2018.

More artwork can be seen www.jennysingletonstudio.com.

Her previous solo exhibitions at Touchstone Gallery include:

• Do it Anyway (2022)

• But What Does it Mean?! (2018, virtual)