Visual Artist

Jodi Gerbi

HOBOKEN, USA

My work delves into the resilience of humans, focusing on how hope serves as a crucial element in sustaining this resilience.

My family history profoundly influences my work. My grandparents were Holocaust survivors who fought in the Jewish resistance in the forests of Poland. Their story of resilience and hope is a testament to the human spirit, and it is their legacy and the thousands of years of endurance of the Jewish people that I aim to honor through my paintings.

The vibrant surfaces and colors of toys and discarded objects is where I draw inspiration to visually express the beauty of hope and perseverance.

I primarily work with oil paints, which allow me to explore texture and three-dimensionality in my subjects. This stems from my childhood habit of taking toys apart to understand their inner workings—an approach that now influences how I tackle each object I paint.

Through my artwork, I highlight the resilience and hope inherent in everyday objects. The discarded and the mundane, through my eyes, become symbols of endurance and beauty. I hope that viewers find a connection to this sense of resilience and are reminded of the strength and hope that exists within all of us.

What are you making right now?

I am currently working on a carnival/circus series about the danger of believing misinformation, especially in social media and specifically, how it is spreading antisemitism. It is a warning but I have painted it in beautiful vibrant colors to make it easier to look at. I hope that people will understand what is going on and stop it before it is too late.

If you could spend an hour with anyone you admire, living or dead, who would it be and what would you ask them?

My grandparents on both sides of my family. They are all gone and I would have asked them what they experienced before I knew them.

What would you like people to understand about your work?

My paintings are to give people a place to find beauty and resilience in a complicated world.

What medium do you work in and what drew you to it?

Oil paint requires me to problem solve in order to get the surface I am painting to look real. You have to understand what you are painting, figure out why it looks the way it does and then paint it layer by layer. I like the trial and error, it is how I quiet my mind.

What do you need in your workspace to spark creativity?

My ideas are usually coming from something I see outside my studio. I collect toys and other objects, set them up in a still life and then light and photograph it. Once I get into my studio, it just has to be organized, and distraction free in order to work.

Has your identity, culture, heritage, or community influenced your creative practice?

Being Jewish was something I just always was, but it has changed greatly and became much more to me since October 7th, 2023. I have reconnected to who I am, and I am still figuring it out. It isn't obvious in my work, I don't paint specific Jewish objects, but it is all in there.

What does success look like to you as a creative?

Success would be a few things, to be respected by my peers, to have people find themselves in my work, and to just make great paintings.