Jean (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Singapore and based in Lansdowne, PA (unceded Lenapehoking territory). Educated in Oil Painting and Art History at Bard College and Critical and Curatorial Studies at Columbia University, her art praxis spans painting, drawing, writing, teaching, and curating. Rooted in sociopolitical and historical research, she creates work around issues of migration, labor, and technology.

She is currently researching large-scale infrastructure, specifically, systems of physical and digital transportation. In her projects, she questions the role of capitalism in spurring physical and digital migration, the latter being the movement of computer work to regions such as India, where menial tasks (such as correcting facial recognition software) can be done cheaply. Through her practice, she imagines a world where capital does not determine the value and relevance of people.

Her research into transportation – of humans, intellectual property, and materials – sparked greater conscientiousness over the carbon footprint of her artistic practice. In 2023, she stopped purchasing synthetic artist-grade materials; limited her purchase of paper and canvas; and transitioned to making her own paints and painting surfaces out of discarded or natural materials.

             
             Photo: Ray Bailey