Jessica Fromm’s exhibition,“ Duck and Color,” on view last March at NoHo Gallery M55, reflects the artist’s view of the country’s political climate. As rock legend Bruce Springsteen observed, “We are living in particularly dangerous times.”
All of the roughly 20 paintings and drawings in this fiercely expressionist exhibition confront some of the most controversial and charged issues of our era: the use of federal agents against protesters and the erosion of the rule of law and constitutional norms. “Can an artist’s work remain aesthetically pure, independent of conditions in their social context?” Fromm asks. Speaking about the title of her show, she explains: “I couldn’t duck. I had to do it. It amazes me that more people aren’t protesting and enraged.”
In Fromm’s paintings, an America under duress is often depicted as a woman wearing red-and-white striped pants, and a starry short sleeved blue top. She has blond hair and an expressionless face. As in all narrative paintings, Fromm tells a story. America is menaced. She is recumbent, knocked off her feet, often flat on the ground. She is defeated, fearful of imminent attack. In several works, Fromm depicts animals—elephants, wild dogs, gorillas—that metaphorically threaten the prostrate figure of America. In a stark charcoal black and white drawing, she underscores her anger with the title written at the bottom of the work: Oh the Horror.
In another powerful piece, Months of Broken Glass, the canvas is crowded with masked attackers and their horrified victims. “My inspiration for this painting was Kristallnacht or the “Night of Broken Glass,” she explains, referencing the name historians have given to the pogroms carried out in Germany by the Nazi party. Although Fromm’s husband is a holocaust survivor, her commitment to human rights extends far beyond the history of World War II.
Growing up in a household where workers and union rights, civil liberties and press freedom were core values, Fromm was immersed in the protests of previous generations. Today her paintings revisit those traditions as a way of expressing her convictions. “I turn my obsession with human rights and care for others into artwork that expresses my concerns,” she says. “I want to rouse my viewers to a consciousness of the threats to us all.”
Consequently, this prolific artist’s work rarely veers into abstraction. Most politically engaged artists employ non-representational forms, color fields, or symbolic devices to critique power structures. Not Fromm. Her work includes recognizable imagery—portraits of President Trump, masked ICE agents, recognizable, printed banners and signs—all reflecting the pressing issues of the present moment.
Before becoming a full-time artist in her thirties, Fromm was an urban and regional planner, and cabinetmaker apprentice. Today, she works in drawing, painting and collage, all of which were featured in her recent exhibition.
Fromm is an artist who takes a clear stand, firmly committed to expressing her anger and convictions through art. G&S
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