Biography - Jennifer Kershaw

Jennifer Kershaw was born in Scarborough, Ontario and lived in Milton after her father's untimely passing in the '90s. In 2004, she earned her B.A. Honours degree from the University of Guelph, majoring in Studio Art with a minor in Art History. It was there in the paint spattered studios of Zavitz Hall, that she began to specialize in painting under Monica Tap, and had her revelatory collision with the work of Mary Pratt.

Soon after graduating, Jennifer and her husband fled the GTA for Ottawa in a battered U-haul with her beloved '93 Pontiac Sunbird in tow and pet goldfish sloshing all the way. She has lived and painted in Ottawa ever since, where she happily does not get routinely stuck in 401 traffic.

Jennifer's work is informed by the concepts of life, time, loss, and light. She uses thin oil glazes to depict photorealistic glass, reflective surfaces, and flesh as a way of trying to capture something as ephemeral as light and time. The organic subjects in her work serve as a secular memento mori: a reminder of the brevity of life, the inevitability of death, and the need to enjoy what we have while it lasts.