Jenny Toth’s work primarily focuses on variations of self-portraiture. She combines animal representations with the human form to create fantastical narratives. These narratives suggest inner struggles, especially fear of loneliness as well as fear of intimate commitment. Her powerful images can evoke a sense of anger but also power. These often discordant themes are woven together with humor and imagination. Toth has always been interested in the way women choose to depict themselves. Her view dramatically differs from a stereotypical male’s view of the female model. She chooses to include elements that are not traditionally viewed as beautiful—-a deformed toe, hairy legs, unkempt hair. For Toth, self-portraiture is a harrowing search for identity. Toth is committed to the process of translating forms from life onto two-dimensional surfaces, and so she works from elaborate set-ups and unusual props to transcend otherwise-typical limitations.
Jenny Toth, who attended the New York Studio School as well as Yale for her MFA in Painting, is an Associate Professor of Art at Wagner College on Staten Island.
Recent Exhibition: Knights and Rainbows: Metaphors of Motherhood March 26- April 20, 2019