It has taken time for the artist Jenna Gribbon (American, born in 1978) to discover her mission in life and art: only after allowing herself to become queer, then meeting her now wife, the musician Mackenzie Scott, in 2017 Gribbon knew that her paintings would attempt to give women agency in their presentation. Throughout history, women often submitted to the ideas about them as produced by men and, monitored by patriarchal societies, the so-called ‘male gaze’ was in control of the way the women were presented and consequently how they should behave.

Gribbon’s seemingly effortless oil paintings are made by swift, visible brushstrokes, and brilliant use of color, with many references to the 19th-century French artists, such as Edouard Manet, who show women at ease with themselves and not seeking any form of social approval. Scott has become the famous muse of Gribbon, whom the artist loves and admires without idealizing. In Sound check (no audience) (2020), Torres, Scott’s artistic name, is preparing herself for a concert; in Street cat (2023), she is caught in the simple act of petting a cat during the couple’s honeymoon in Asia.