Barbara Tupova

For decades, Janet Werner has transformed found photographs into fictional women whose identities remain deliberately open. In conversation, she reflects on painting, collage, subjectivity, art history, teaching, and the necessity of simply continuing to work. The first time I saw Janet's paintings in person, I found myself doing something I knew I probably shouldn't: trying to figure out who the women were. Their faces seemed familiar without belonging to anyone I could identify.

Graduating from NYU Tisch in Manhattan's famous Radio City Music Hall already felt slightly unreal. The scale of the space, the ceremonial atmosphere, the transition it represented-it created the strange sensation of standing both inside your own life and outside of it at the same time.

Graduating from NYU Tisch in Manhattan's famous Radio City Music Hall already felt slightly unreal. The scale of the space, the ceremonial atmosphere, the transition it represented-it created the strange sensation of standing both inside your own life and outside of it at the same time.