JP-Anne Judy Giera’s work became visual in scope in 2016, when she began experimenting with collage, painting and drawing. “Growing up, I had quite a thorough art education; however I never felt I was ‘good enough’ to be a professional artist,” reflects JP-Anne Judy. After studying theatre and dance in undergraduate, she went on to complete an MFA in Theatre from the prestigious Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University (of Inside the Actors Studio on Bravo TV fame). She spent a subsequent year studying in the graduate Performance & Performance Studies program at Pratt Institute. During this time, JP-Anne’s work veered toward largely visual mediums. “It was the combination of studying artists who defined themselves as ‘interdisciplinary’ and being in an art school environment, as well as an internship with the Franklin Furnace Archive, that made me realize my work could be interdisciplinary, and that I was truly an artist in every meaning of the word. This realization is why I became an artist…I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life. Art is my love, my refuse, my joy, and my expression.” Educating herself around art theory, from Lucy Lippard to Walter Benjamin, art became the vehicle through which a deep core need began to have an outlet of expression. JP-Anne’s work explores conceptually the artist’s nascent femininity, corporeal entity, and lived experiences as a queer, transgender woman. Her interdisciplinary work could take the form of paintings, drawings, collage, installation, zines/books or performances/videos. Like gender identity itself, she intends that the works exist in and create liminal places. “There is an overarching theme to my work, which is the ephemerality and fleeting quality that both queerness and gender seem to dictate.” Although her paintings and drawings often feel most at home in the world of collage & assemblage, there is a performative quality to all of the work. “Sewing is a key element in most of my 2d work,” says JP-Anne, who thinks about sewing as “performative mark-making” and “drawing in an extended field.” Being a trans woman, the act of sewing also feels “reminiscent of my own medical transition as a transgender woman,” with needles being at once an instrument of sewing and a tool by which one can inject bi-weekly estrogen, or “sew my skin after a gender-affirming surgical procedure. The act of puncturing the surface of the work then becomes very important. Not to mention the feminine connotation of the art of sewing!” Currently working from her studio in the Bronx and from home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, some of her greatest artistic challenges include battles with anxiety and mental health, as well as generally beginning to “reckon my gender identity with my work.” On the larger scale of things, she is working on a 14-foot tall installation comprised of drawing, painting and found material titled nature calling, which explores the liberating feeling JP-Anne Judy feels when she is able to safely use her choice restroom (the women’s) in public as a transgender woman as well as the all-too-common violence perpetuated against trans folks. Checkout the final piece at Listen: Cis And Trans Women, and Gender Non-Conforming Trans Artists Respond to Politics Today, at the Bronx Art Space from February 27th to April 6th, curated by Deborah Yasinksy. JP-Anne Judy will perform “a ritual for trans affirmation” live for the opening reception February 27th at 7pm. Looking forward, the artist is engaged in a 4-month-long project undergoing Facial Feminization Surgery at the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital. Other than that, JP-Anne is completing her second masters degree, an MFA in Studio Art at Lehman College/CUNY, studying under amazing artists such as Dannielle Tegeder, Melissa Brown, Jonathan Ehrenberg and Sean McCarthy.
Follow JP-Anne Judy Giera on Instagram @theartsandcrapsstudio