Biography

Jenna Kesgen

Biography

Jenna Kesgen is an Asheville-based artist whose oil and acrylic paintings are rooted in close observation of the natural world. With a background in environmental science and education, her work weaves ecological understanding with intuition and emotion, seeking to convey the presence and personality of each living organism.

For more than twenty-five years, Kesgen has used painting as a way to explore relationships between plants, place, and lived experience. Her practice includes large-scale murals and interpretive artwork created for nature centers and public spaces, as well as immersive, place-based projects such as the COSMICA artist residency in the Peruvian Amazon.

Kesgen has held creative roles within environmental institutions, including The North Carolina Arboretum, where her artwork has been incorporated into permanent exhibits and public installations. Her current studio practice centers on intimate portraits of life on the forest floor, inviting viewers to slow down, look closely, and reconnect with the broader living community.

Artist Statement:

Much of Kesgen’s work emerges from extended time outdoors, walking trails, observing seasonal change, and lingering with small, often overlooked forms of life. She is drawn to moments of quiet discovery: early spring ephemerals emerging from leaf litter, subtle shifts in color and texture, or the way light animates a forest understory. These experiences of close looking foster reverence and deepen my sense of connection to place.

Through painting, Kesgen aims to spark recognition—an awareness of the living presence within each organism and the interwoven relationships that sustain ecological systems. Her work invites viewers to slow down, to notice more closely, and to reconsider their place within the more-than-human world.