JENNY PETITE
Reconfiguring Authorship, Semiotics, and Historical Representation in Contemporary Photography
Photography has long occupied a unique position among systems of representation. As a medium, the photograph manifests fact through its direct physical relationship with the world. Semiotic theory provides an essential framework for understanding this distinction.
According to semiologists, linguistic signs, or words, emerge from a highly systematized language governed by grammatical rules and lexical conventions. These signs belong to a coded system through which meaning is attached to them. Since these signs neither resemble the referent to which they are associated (the way pictures do) nor are literally caused by it (the way a wet floor is), their relationship to meaning is purely arbitrary and, therefore, conventional; semiologists designate them as symbols, the first type of sign.
![Two Fridas [Frida Series]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fe7a5e_596ca831a6494a6f9b8a5896394f2769~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_1212,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/fe7a5e_596ca831a6494a6f9b8a5896394f2769~mv2.png)
Matte Photo Paper 250 GSM - 8.5 x 11 inches 2000 Editions + 2 APs | US$ 25 each excl. of VAT (Framing not included)
![Grey Frida portrait [Frida Series]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fe7a5e_10a3088c451c40f1aa3080d6f731e7cb~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_1400,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/fe7a5e_10a3088c451c40f1aa3080d6f731e7cb~mv2.jpg)
Matte Photo Paper 250 GSM - 8.5 x 11 inches 2000 Editions + 2 APs | US$ 25 each excl. of VAT (Framing not included)
The second type of sign, the index, is devoid of coding, as it cannot be internally rearranged, reshaped, adjusted, or reorganised. This is because the index holds a causal relationship with its referent, creating a block-like effect. For instance, paper catches fire (sign) when it is placed into fire (referent), or an apple falls from a tree (sign) due to gravity (referent). Its connection to reality is existential rather than conventional. A coded system governing such a meaning-sign relationship is, therefore, resisted by this type of sign. As the index follows a fixed equation, a sign can not only be traced back to the referent but can also become a referent itself, creating a pattern or a blockchain effect (crypto technology—Non-Fungible Tokens). This meaning-sign relationship resists a coded system altogether; however, it is fundamentally built on choice (whether conscious or unconscious). It seems to have been the point of attention in Marcel Duchamp's artistic investigations.
[1] Two Fridas. Matte Photo Paper 250 GSM - 8.5 x 11 inches
2000 Editions + 2 APs | US$ 25 each excl. of VAT (Framing not included)
The third type, the icon, attaches meaning through the axis of resemblance. Pictures form the third type of sign. Although icons are based upon visual resemblance, they remain open to compositional manipulation through coded arrangements that generate additional layers of meaning, including the compositional organization of The Last Supper and the arrangement of devices in the series Frida Recreations [1] by Jenny Petite. Because the icon can, structurally, embed codes, such representation allows space for the viewer to create a "perception" of reality. In this way, a sign, a referent, and an observer can co-exist.
[2] Slave No More, Matte Photo Paper 250 GSM - 42 x 30 inches
2000 Editions + 2 APs | US$ 75 each excl. of VAT (Framing not included)
While Duchamp used the second type of sign, the index, to decentre authorship, raising new epistemological ("How do we know it?"), ontological ("What is art?"), and institutional ("Who determines it?") questions, Petite leaps onto the third type of sign, the icon, to establish authorship as a response. Her works are often marked by the re-photography of historical referents, unifying the practices of Sherrie Levine and Cindy Sherman while touching the edges of Duchamp's field by adopting the index's aspect as a "shifter," portraying herself as various subjects. By doing so, she attempts to reveal her response to Duchamp's decentralization of authorship by embellishing the "self" in her works: "Artist becomes art" as against "art without an artist," placing emphasis on "skills." Yet this reaffirmation of authorship does not simply restore traditional artistic authority. Rather, she simultaneously destabilizes the historical referent itself, shifting attention away from the original image toward the processes through which historical meaning is continually reconstructed.
The idea of "redoubling or the fold" is suggested visually by Petite's Slave No More (2026) [2]. The
insertion of a painting, with the self as its subject, creating a mirror image of her posture, develops Derrida's concept of "mimesis," in which the double (or second-order copy) doubles no single (or original). Representation consequently ceases to imitate reality; instead, it precedes and actively constructs reality itself.
[3] She was an American Girl, Matte Photo Paper 250 GSM - 20 x 30 inches
2000 Editions + 2 APs | US$ 50 each excl. of VAT (Framing not included)
Through this work, Petite aligns herself with the lineage of postmodern artists—including Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Barbara Kruger, and Sherrie Levine—whose practices interrogate the reversed relationship between reality and representation. However, Petite advances this discourse by transforming self-representation into an autonomous system of visual replication. The mirrored posture between photograph and painting establishes a copy without an original, thereby destabilising conventional notions of authenticity while simultaneously reinforcing artistic authorship through repeated self-inscription. The white hat recalls the Roman pileus, the cap traditionally bestowed upon emancipated slaves during ceremonies of manumission. By invoking this historical symbol, Petite constructs a visual statement advocating the emancipation of the "new woman," transforming an ancient device of political freedom into a contemporary metaphorical device. The image draws inspiration from Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, with the yellow dress exposing the breast.
It suggests a revolt against the status quo—the present—moving toward the unknown. Signs such as the open birdcage and the blank canvas behind the precarious cactus represent an uncertain landscape and a world yet to be discovered. Simultaneously, the coexistence of painting and photography within a single composition documents the historical progression of artistic technologies, illustrating how photography both inherits and reconfigures the representational functions historically occupied by painting.
Across her broader body of work, Petite consistently explores how signifiers precede and construct both reality and memory. Rather than presenting historical events as fixed narratives, she reconfigures temporal frameworks in order to interrogate the unstable relationship between originality, perception, and remembrance. Rooted primarily in self-portraiture, her oeuvre functions as a sustained intellectual inquiry into the fluidity of identity, representation, and visual history.
[3] Well, Hello Mr. Mendez, Matte Photo Paper 250 GSM - 36 x 24 inches
2000 Editions + 2 APs | US$ 44 each excl. of VAT (Framing not included)
A defining characteristic of Petite's visual language is her sophisticated orchestration of light, form, and self-representation. Within both her photographic and painted compositions, light undergoes a process of dematerialization, dissolving clear distinctions between the camera's focal plane, her own image, and the surrounding subjects. This intentional ambiguity produces a relational visual field in which recurring figures become symbolic anchors of continuity, introspection, and psychological resonance. Rather than functioning as isolated portraits, her images construct interconnected networks of memory and identity that continually negotiate the boundaries between presence and absence.
Indeed, nothing could offer a greater contrast than Petite's She Was an American Girl [3]: an axial split of forms within the same gender—traditional versus new woman. Captured from outside her house, she plays two polar opposite roles that a woman plays. Petite, in a red dress, is the traditional woman who used to go out for recreational activities holding her husband's arm. Petite, dressed in black, is the "new woman" who now becomes her own "husband" by going out to work. The “husband” holds a hammer, in her right hand, positioned right in the centre of the piece aiming at the feminine genitalia representing the absolute destruction of the divine feminine. She meticulously documents the neutral faces, connecting the historical referent with the contemporary one while highlighting that the two opposing poles of pronominal spaces do not directly translate into internal euphoria. This iconic representation is marked by the fact that Petite has a twin sister, thereby reproducing the referent itself: the act of doubling. In this way, the viewer is specifically placed at a precise vantage point to analyse narratives of the "concept of the new woman" as a function of real-world events versus the subjectivity of his or her own human psyche.
French critic and semiologist Roland Barthes called the basic feature of photography its condition of being "a message without a code." While acknowledging photography's indexical foundation, Petite's works demonstrate that historical referents are never permanently confined within the coded systems of historical narratives. Instead, photography becomes a site through which inherited meanings are continually dismantled, reconstructed, and reinterpreted within contemporary cultural contexts. The implications of Petite's works shatter the idea that historical referents are established within the constraints of historical narratives ("the conventional coded system"). Through her works, she frees the old from its frame to be reinterpreted within contemporary dynamics.
- Siddhant Khattri, Partner at Vedica Art Studios and Gallery
Biography
Jenny Petite (born 1975, Washington State, USA) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. Working across photographic media, oil on canvas, and wood, she is best known for her postmodernist and poststructuralist approach to visual narrative. Through her artistic practice, Petite explores how signifiers precede and construct both reality and memory, reconfiguring temporal frames to interrogate the tension between originality and perception. Her oeuvre, often rooted in self-portraiture, presents an intellectual inquiry into the fluidity of identity, representation, and visual history.
Petite’s work is characterized by a sophisticated interplay between light, form, and self-representation. In her photographic and painted compositions, she dematerializes the presence of light, thereby dissolving the boundaries between the camera’s focus, her own image, and the surrounding subjects. This visual ambiguity emphasizes the relational dynamics between the artist and her environment, allowing familiar recurring characters to serve as symbolic anchors of introspection and continuity. Notable among her projects are Venus of Suburbia, Paris Nuit, Modern Renaissance – A Revival of Self, and Van Gogh Recreations—series that collectively reflect her commitment to deconstructing the authenticity of memory and recontextualizing art historical references within contemporary discourse.
Jenny Petite has exhibited widely across the United States, with notable presentations at the Nashville International Airport; Solo Exhibition at Main St Gallery, Nashville (2023); Maximalist at CEV Art Gallery, Arizona (2025); and Frida Inspired Exhibit at the Mount Dora Center of Arts, Florida. Her works are held in private collections internationally, attesting to the resonance of her conceptual and aesthetic inquiry. Through her ongoing projects, Petite continues to examine the mutable relationship between perception, memory, and the evolving self within the continuum of art history.
CV
Education
2023 Master of Fine Arts / Photography, Savannah College of Art and Design, USA
2018 Bachelor of Arts / Visual Communication / Photography, Savannah College of Art and Design, USA
2012 Associates of Arts / Visual Communications / Photography, Nashville State Community College, USA
2000 Associates of Arts / Music / Emphasis Vocal, Bellevue College, USA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Flying Solo, Nashville International Airport, Nashville, TN
2021 Solo Exhibition Vita Grandioso, Main St Gallery, Nashville, TN
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Histories Unbound: Dialogues across time, curated by Susan Fraser-Hughes, Siddhant Khattri and Rajul Shah, Vedica Art Studios and Gallery, Mumbai, India
2025 Spirit of Frida Kahlo Art Competition and Exhibition, Mount Dora Center for Arts, Mount Dora, FL
Cromer Open, Cromer Artspace, North Norfolk, England
The Maximalist, CEVA Art Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2024 Square Photography Exhibit, Decode Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2019 Music City Art Show, Music City Fencing Club, Nashville, TN
2018 Fifty Forward Winter Exhibition, Fifty Forward Gallery, Nashville, TN
Selected Press
La Poupée Book, 2026
Vita Grandioso Book, 2025
