Jane Fine


Jane Fine is an American visual artist. She has been an active participant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn's art scene since the 1980s. Her work has been associated with cartoons, graffiti, and the work of Philip Guston, who she met at Harvard University. She has collaborated on drawings with her husband, the painter James Esber, under the pseudonym "J. Fiber".

Early life and education

Jane Fine grew up in New York City. She attended Hunter College High School and enrolled at Harvard University as a mathematics major, but then switched majors to focus on studio art. After graduating with a B.A. magna cum laude in Visual and Environmental Studies, she studied painting for two years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and went on to receive her M.A. from Tufts University. In 1989, she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Career

In 1985, Fine became one of the founding members of 124 Ridge Street Gallery on the Lower East Side, and participated in the gallery until 1988. In 1986, Fine moved to Williamsburg and became an active participant in the neighborhood's growing artist community, for which she was consulted in Ann Fensterstock's book Art on the Block: Tracking the New York Art World from SoHo to the Bowery, Bushwick and Beyond.
Her 1995 solo show at Casey Kaplan was the gallery's inaugural exhibition. Fine showed her work in some of the first commercial exhibition spaces in Williamsburg, including Annie Herron’s Test-Site and Pierogi. She was represented by Pierogi for over 20 years, where she had seven solo exhibitions. Other one-person exhibitions by Fine have been held at locations including White Columns, Colgate University, and the Mitchell Gallery at the Ringling College of Art and Design.
In 2018, after a 23andMe test, Fine discovered that the man she thought was her biological father was not. She was able to determine the identity of her biological father, a pediatrician she knew as a child named Henry Eisenoff. This patrilineal discovery had a profound impact on the direction of her work, which began to incorporate text as a means to explore the complex range of memories, perceptions, and emotions associated with the event.

Teaching

Fine has held academic teaching positions at several institutions including Alfred University, Hamilton College, the University of California, Davis, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Vassar College. Notably, in 2009, she was the Christian A. Johnson Visiting Artist-in-Residence at Middlebury College.

Awards and fellowships

Residencies

Selected solo and two-person exhibitions

Three Sided Coin, Catskill Art Space
  • Love, American Style, Pierogi, New York
  • Contents Under Pressure, Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York
  • Ladies and Gentlemen, Please Remain Calm, Clifford Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
  • Formulas For Now, Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York
  • Jolly Quagmire, Michael Rosenthal Gallery, San Francisco, California
  • Where Boys with Guns Wear Bows in Their Hair, Prospect 1.5, The Wesley, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Glad All Over, Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York
  • J. Fiber: World War Me, Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York
  • Skirmish, Pierogi, Leipzig, Germany
  • Shock and Awe, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • Friendly Fire, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
  • After Sugar Time, Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York
  • Jane Fine: New Work, Pierogi, Brooklyn, New York
  • Jane Fine, Casey Kaplan, New York
  • Jane Fine, Casey Kaplan, New York
  • White Room: Jane Fine, White Columns, New York

Collections