Driven by a desire to archive her community through photography and painting, Danielle De Jesus (b.1987) creates records of Puerto Rican life in the rapidly-gentrifying Bushwick neighborhood she grew up in. Observing scenes of neighbors on stoops, kids playing games, and vendors on street corners, De Jesus captures the joys and struggles of individuals and peers in her community. Canvases embedded with the relics of daily-life – tablecloths that graced kitchen tables, tiles that lay in the apartment her mother was forced out of, or the dollar bills that mediate life under capitalism – become grounds for images that document resilience in the face of displacement. Through a deft handle of realism, De Jesus’ paintings give voice to the interior lives of inner city residents, highlighting the rich cultures that are being erased in depictions of marginalized communities in our art, our institutions and our media.

De Jesus received her BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, NY (2019), and subsequently received her MFA at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT (2021). Her work has been included in institutional exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2023); MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2022); and Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (2022). In 2022, she was chosen for the YI Artist Residency at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY and the Beecher Residency in Litchfield, CT. She has been the subject of solo/duo exhibitions at Francois Ghebaly, Los Angeles, CA (2023); Calderon Gallery, New York, NY (2021); Galleria Betances, Mayaguez, PR (2018); Grumpy Bert Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2016); and The Living Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2015). Her work is in the public collections of the Peréz Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. De Jesus currently lives and works in Queens, NY.

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