Jennifer Guidi b. 1972
Artist Jennifer Guidi was born in 1972 in Redondo Beach, California. She studied painting and printmaking at Boston University, earning her BFA in 1994, before obtaining an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. In 2001, she moved back to Los Angeles, where she became captivated by the city's distinctive light and architecture. At first, Guidi's work was representational, focusing on portraits and landscapes, but over time, she transitioned into abstraction, developing a personalized visual language that combines rich textures, intricate brushstrokes, and meditative color compositions.
Guidi's early exhibitions featured intimate oil paintings depicting landscapes, plants, and everyday scenes, earning comparisons to artists like Sam Francis and Fairfield Porter. However, a 2012 trip to Morocco profoundly influenced her artistic direction. Fascinated by the elaborate motifs of Moroccan rugs, particularly their rarely seen undersides, she began incorporating patterns and relief techniques into her paintings. This exploration led to her signature "Field Paintings," which debuted in 2014 and marked the beginning of her use of sand as a primary medium. By pressing precise marks into layers of sand and pigment, she created rhythmic, tactile surfaces that convey a sense of movement and energy.
In 2017, Guidi's breakthrough came with her first solo exhibition at the Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art in Genoa, Italy, where she presented large-scale, spectrum-colored sand paintings. Since then, her work has evolved into deeply reflective compositions influenced by natural phenomena, spirituality, and Eastern philosophies. Often compared to Agnes Martin and Georgia O'Keeffe, Guidi's mandala-like works engage with light, space, and sensory perception, blending contemporary abstraction with ancient aesthetic traditions. Her paintings have been additionally exhibited at various venues, including solo shows at the Orange County Museum of Art, the Long Museum in Shanghai, and Château La Coste in France.
Guidi's work is already housed in major public collections, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She continues to push the boundaries of abstraction, using sand, acrylics, and oils to create immersive works that merge art, nature, and meditation. Living and working in Los Angeles, Guidi is a prominent figure in contemporary art locally and beyond, drawing inspiration from both the physical world and metaphysical concepts to produce paintings that evoke a sense of harmony and wonder.
