Born: Washington D.C., 1972
Currently lives and works in New York, NY
Represented by: Ulterior Gallery in New York
Jen Mazza (born 1972, Washington D.C.) is a queer artist and educator, and draws her inspiration from a range of disciplines including philosophy, literature, and visual culture. She received an M.F.A. from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2001; and is currently based in New York. Her work has been a subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions, including 2026 solo presentations at Ulterior Gallery in New York and Feria Material in Mexico City. In 2018 she had a mid-career retrospective at The James Gallery (CUNY Graduate Center) and in 2021 she presented her work as part of a talk on art and nature at the Getty Museum.
Mazza has received residency awards from Artist Alliance, Inc., Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Blue Mountain Center, among others; and in 2008 she was selected to be Artist in Residence at the Newark Museum. In November 2026 she will be at the American Academy in Rome as part of their Visiting Artist and Scholar Program. Mazza currently holds a 2026 NYSCA Grant and has previously received two Individual Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. In addition to being showcased in in a special edition of the German newspaper Die Zeit; Mazza’s work has been reviewed in Two Coats of Paint, the New York Times, Art in America, Art News, Artforum, and Hyperallergic. She currently teaches at The Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design.
CV
Education
1999-2001 Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Solo Exhibitions
2026
Ceruse, Ulterior Gallery, NY
Feria Material, Mexico City, Mexico
2025
Vicissitudes of Nature, Ulterior Gallery NY
2019
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Attending to Particulars, New York, NY
2019
C.G.Boerner, No Subjects Where None Intended, New York, NY
2018
James Gallery at the Graduate Center, CUNY, Disobedience is not careless, New York, NY
2015
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, \ /\/\/\/\/\ /\\\\\\\\\///////////\ A Painting is a Machine, New York, NY
2014
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Graft, New York, NY
2012
Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, The Words, New York, NY
2010
Jersey City Museum, Self Deceit, 1 x 1 series, Jersey City, NJ
John Davis Gallery, Carriage House, The Object Removed, Hudson, NY
2008
Mariboe Art Gallery, Peddie School, Delie, Hightstown, N.J
2007
John Davis Gallery, New Paintings, Hudson, NY
Tomasulo Gallery, Scarlet Intent, Union County College, Cranford, NJ
2006
John Davis Gallery, Carriage House, Paintings, Hudson, NY
2002
PS122, Auricle, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026
The Painted Word, Lehman College Art Gallery, CUNY, NY, NY
2025
Arrival Art Fair, Tourists, North Adams, MA
Landscapes of Fear, International Waters, Brooklyn, NY
2024
NADA Miami, Ulterior Gallery booth with Maryam Amiryani, Miami Florida
Extra Taste, International Objects, Brooklyn, NY
Textures of Feminist Perseverance, The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center, NY
2022
Recurrent: Midori Harima, Selena Kimball and Jen Mazza, Ulterior Gallery, NY
2020
Artist Alliance Inc., A Light Without Shadow, (virtual) NY
2017
Jane Lombard Gallery, Sites of Knowledge, NY
Knockdown Art Center, Unseen Hand, Brooklyn, NY
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Correspondences, NY
2016
Barbara Walters Gallery, Sarah Lawrence College, Flat Screen, Split Screen, Smoke Screen, Bronxville, NY
Rockefeller Bros. Fund, Residency Unlimited Artists, NY
2013
Frosch & Portman, Take Note, New York, NY
The Hole, Summer Reading, New York, NY
Gavlak Gallery, All F@*#ing Summer, FLA
2011
Galerie Edgar Frei /Project Madonna-Fust, Komposition des Zufalls, Bern, Switzerland
York College Art Gallery, The B-Sides, Jamaica, NY
2009
Cuchifritos Gallery, Feedback – Working Space ‘09, curated by Thomas Lax, NY
Paul Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University, Hysteria, Past yet Present, Newark, NJ
Spruill Center for the Arts, Go Figure, Contemporary Interpretations of Figurative Art, GA
2008
Jersey City Museum, The Feminine Mystique, curated by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Jersey City, NJ
Awards
2026
New York State Council for the Arts, Visual Artist Grant
2013
Millay Colony for the Arts, Residency
2008
Newark Museum, Artist in Residency
New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Fellowship
Artist Alliance Inc. Lower East Side Rotating Studio Program, Studio Award
The Jentel Foundation, Residency
2007
PS122, Project Space Award 2006-2007
2006
Blue Mountain Center, Residency
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2004/2005/2006, Geraldine R. Dodge Residency
2005
Yaddo, Geraldine R. Dodge Residency
2004
The Jentel Foundation, Residency
Millay Colony for the Arts, Residency
Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Creative Fellowship
2002
Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Emerge 2003 Artist Fellowship
New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Fellowship
Writings/Texts
2019 “Like Driving at Night: A Process-Based, Learner-Centered Approach to Teaching Artistic Research Across Disciplines” (written in collaboration with social practice artist Dylan Gauthier) in the forthcoming book “Teaching Artistic Research” (De Gruyter, ed. Ruth Mateus-Berr and Richard Jochum PhD MFA).
2019 “A Week in Late Capitalism / Ancient Capitalistic Proverbs”(Blush) a chapbook written by poet Sampson Starkweather with images by Jen Mazza.
2016 “Ill Said Ill Seen: a Meditation on Robert Ryman and Samuel Beckett” (The Finch, online journal)
2015 “Shudder/Shutter: Signal to Noise” and “A Dialog of Three Disciplines” (The Finch, online journal)
Artist Talks, Panels and Presentations
2021
The Getty Museum, Artist Talk
2018
The James Gallery at The Center for the Humanities:
—”Painting as Translation”, Artist talk and Conversation with writer Eric Dean Wilson, CUNY, NY
—”Words do not pass, they accumulate”, Reading and conversation with poets Zachary Pace, Bridget Talone and Simone White, CUNY, NY
Pratt Institute, Fine Arts Faculty Lunch Talk
2011
Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Artist Talk
2010
Jersey City Museum, Artist Talk
2009
Paul Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University, Artist Talk
Rutgers University, Visiting Artist
2008
Newark Museum, Artist Talk
New Jersey State Council for the Arts, 2008 Artist Roundtable Panelist, Grants and Funding Panel Discussion
Peddie School, Artist Talk and Visiting Artist
Selected Bibliography
- Dan Bischoff, “Framing realism into fragments: Rising Newark artist Jennifer Mazza depicts sex and violence… irony and humor,” The New Jersey Star Ledger, April 24, 2008
- Dan Bischoff, “Jen Mazza writes ‘the new book’ on art”, by Dan Bischoff, The New Jersey Star Ledger, September 9, 2012
- Brendan Carroll, “Reading beyond the page”, Hyperallergic, September 11, 2012
- Elwyn Palmerton, “Jen Mazza at Stephan Stoyanov Gallery”, review, Artillery Magazine, vol 7 issue 2: November/December 2012
- Ali Pechman, “Kathy Butterly and Jen Mazza”, review, Art News, May 2014
- Roberta Smith, “Upstairs and Behind Doors, Creative Passion”, The New York Times, April 3, 2014
- Zachary Sachs, “Sites of Knowledge,” review, June 30, 2017
- John Yau, “Summer Carousing and Revelry”, review, Hyperallergic, July 3, 2016