Exhibition: Pink Training Wheels by artist Jenna Lou

Jenna Lou is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses oil painting and performance videography. Raised in the Driftless Region of Iowa, she maintains a profound reverence for the area’s distinctive topography. She earned her BFA from the University of Northern Iowa in 2023 and currently contributes to the Cedar Rapids community through art-related programming. Lou produces her work in a greenhouse adjoining her home, where she engages with themes of girlhood, Midwest nostalgia, and the natural environment. Her art-making draws upon family photographs and videos, investigating how she was socialized to perform femininity. Like learning to ride a bicycle, femininity is portrayed as a learned practice. Both imparted by her family and personally embraced. Through painting self-portraits inspired by archival photographs, re-editing family footage, and performing in public spaces, Lou interrogates the tension between societal expectations and individual autonomy, revealing the nuanced interplay of choice, memory, and identity.