Jenna Lucente was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Staten Island. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art from Syracuse University and her Master of Fine Art from CUNY Queens College, both with a concentration in painting. Lucente’s work combines stylized imagery with a muted and monotone color palette.  Her current series of drawings on mylar and oil paintings are centered around a flooded landscape populated by flora, fauna and a recurring figure of an adolescent girl. These repeated images help form Lucente’s visual language and the series elicits feelings of vulnerability, protection and fragility.

Lucente worked in the publishing industry for many years executing page production and image retouching for magazines like Martha Stewart Living and Teen People.  While this was not the most creative position, Lucente was able to use skills acquired from her education such as design theory and understanding of color, typography and layouts to complete the work. During this time Lucente still maintained a studio practice in her spare time, and in 2005 she left the publishing industry to pursue teaching. This change in profession allowed her more time to focus on her own artistic work and develop a deeper studio practice. Since then, she has taught at Wagner College, Pratt Institute, NYU, New York College of Technology and currently as a full-time faculty member at Salem Community College presiding over their art program.  She has taught classes in 2D design, digital illustration, layout, and typography, but her favorite classes to teach are figure drawing, remarking, “there is always something new to see, to learn, and to draw”.

Lucente exhibits her work throughout the United States, and in 2017 she completed her most ambitious public art project to date: the installation of her work at the Arthur Kill MTA Station in Staten Island, NY. She maintains a studio at The Delaware Contemporary and is an active member of their community, facilitating open figure drawing sessions and working with the education department on programs like Project C. When she is not working in her studio or teaching, Lucente can be found swimming laps in the pool and exploring nature at local gardens and parks. She especially enjoys Mount Cuba Center because of its connection to the native plants of Delaware. At home she has surrounded herself with approximately 30 different houseplants like pothos, cacti, and Chinese evergreen, saying, “I actually feel like I am living in my own artwork sometimes!”