Image: Rose Art Museum, Waltham
Jenna Gribbon is scheduled to take part in a virtual program on October 8, 2026, at 7 p.m., with The New Yorker staff writer Naomi Fry. The conversation is being held on the occasion of Gribbon’s first museum survey, ‘Jenna Gribbon: Entwined.’
Together, Gribbon and Fry will explore Gribbon’s distinctive approach to painting, the collaborative nature of her portraits, and the ways her work challenges conventional notions of representation, intimacy, and observation.
The program will span Gribbon’s career while looking toward its future, offering audiences an opportunity to hear her discuss the evolution of her practice, her creative process, and the enduring concerns that continue to inform her work. Audience members will have the opportunity to participate in a live question-and-answer session following the discussion. The program is organized in conjunction with the exhibition, which runs from August 19, 2026, through January 3, 2027.
The museum describes the people closest to Gribbon as enduring subjects of her paintings, while emphasizing that likeness is only the beginning of the work.
Gribbon was born in Knoxville in 1978, studied painting at the University of Georgia in 2001, and received her MFA from Hunter College in 2019. Fry is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a regular contributor to the weekly column Critic’s Notebook.
