The Female Gaze

When Jenna Gribbon met musician Mackenzie Scott, it changed the way she thought about painting and the possibilities for female portraiture.

- By Dodie Kazanjian

Jenna Gribbon's life as a figurative painter made a sharp turn in 2017, when she was 38. It took me so long to understand myself and my sexuality, she tells me, and that could be attributed in large part to the lack of images of women in relationships with each other. There's a bit more history of gay men depicting and depicted in romantic situations, but I'd seen so few examples when I was growing up of queer identity among women. I wanted to make work that was impactful, but also more direct and more pleasurable, she says.

Jenna had been married to and divorced from a man, Matthew Gribbon, and she was then living with her partner, the novelist Julian Tepper, and their son, Silas. (Jenna and Julian were not married and had an open relationship.) It was at this moment that she met Mackenzie Scott, the indie-rock singer and composer known as Torres. Scott, who is 12 years younger, became her lover and main subject.

When I visit Gribbon in late August, she leads me to her Brooklyn studio through a magical secret garden with tall trees, low stone walls, and gravel paths. We head down a flight of steps into a smallish, double-height room with a skylight.