Jenna Lash

Biography

Jenna Lash is a visual artist who is fascinated by currency. Her interest is in diverse cultures and how their identities are represented by their money. Through the prism of her work, Lash’s art reflects her impressions of countries’ symbolic representations of their financial systems.

Lash’s enlarged paintings of currency also bring attention to money’s beauty and symbolism. Through it’s focus on currency and culture, Lash’s work clarifies its meaning, that of the nature of value and its measure. The accessibility of her paintings encourages viewers to relate to and understand their intrinsic connection to currency and its place in a global society.

Lash’s unique contemporary work has been written up by Ralph Gardner of “The Wall Street Journal,” and “Bloomberg News” for her solo show in Lugano, Switzerland. “The National Art Museum and Gallery Guide,” and “The Art Now/New York Gallery Guide,” have both displayed illustrations of her work in their magazines.

Lash has had fifteen solo shows, and has been in more than thirty juried group exhibitions, in the U.S. and abroad. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and a Master’s of Arts Degree from New York University. She has also studied at the American Academy of Rome. Her work is held in private collections in the United States and in Europe.

Artist statement

What Value, Money?

“Money is a framework for my exploration of value and values: of the personal versus the public; of the conflicting perspectives between women and men; of the cultural differences between generations; and of the harmony between (or conflict with) individuals in relation to a global society.

Over the years, I have pondered many questions about this highly charged symbol, and what it represents with respect to identity—both of the self, and of one's larger society. How do we reflect our own worth, and our worth as a society, through currency? Should it still matter that individual countries each have their own currency, or would it be better to have a borderless world, and a unified currency? (Will it unite us, or ultimately destroy us?) What is money's position vis-a-vis individualism, diversity, identity, unity? What, ultimately, will be gained, and what lost?

I believe that these questions are more relevant than ever today, as information, relationships, and, ultimately, currency—become ever more connected. As an artist, I want to encourage my viewers to consider how their money, and what they choose to spend it on (or forego), goes hand in hand with the worth assigned to individuals, things, societies, and countries.”