Jessica Gomula-Kruzic
Professor of Video & Time Based Media
California State University Stanislaus, Turlock California
Jessica Gomula-Kruzic is subversive. In her artwork, she playfully introduces ideas. As a viewer, you follow her logic and new notions are revealed. She subtly encourages participation and you naturally join in. Here a new performer is created, as you change from observer to participant. As an educator, Jessica Gomula-Kruzic encourages you to ask questions. As an artist, she asks her own questions—they are subversive, and you want in.
Given the variety of media she uses, from installation pieces like Semantic Frottage and web-only adventure games like Modesto Reborn, to the community created, fabric-based Dream Garden, strikingly consistent thematic and visual motifs remain throughout Gomula-Kruzic’s work. She states, “Weaving these seemingly diverse works into a collective whole is an investigation of how to make tomorrow better.” Her work explores societal constraints with a visual style that places viewers in the midst of her questioning as active participants. Core elements to Gomula-Kruzic’s style include a dynamic, shifting nature that feels responsive to the environment, accompanied by a whimsical critique of modern American culture and social norms. Many of her works are brightly colored with contrasting hues, layered with moving imagery that frequently includes the human form, and a multitude of provocative short statements or single words. Visually, her work is colorful, corporeal, and constantly changing. Socially, her work explores gender politics, sexuality, and societal taboos.
In her art, Gomula-Kruzic explores the nature of the physical body and societal constraints with an enveloping visual style that places the viewer in the action—frequently as a complicit participant. Changes in media reconfirm the dynamic nature of her work and her desire to create conversations around social consciousness. In both online and in-person interactions, her work is where the body meets the digital experience, a confluence of spinning ideas to be viewed from different perspectives. Gomula-Kruzic turns the audience into her partner—to see her work is to travel within her world, and to share the stage with her fellow collaborators.
Gomula-Kruzic’s video and interactive media works have been showcased internationally at Eastern Bloc, Montreal, Canada; Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, Kefalonia Greece; OZU, Monteleone Sabino, outside Rome, Italy; POP Revolution Festival, Lecce, Italy; CST Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology, Zurich; MuseumsQuartier Wien, Vienna, Austria; Institut Intermédií, Prague, Czech republic.
Gomula-Kruzic’s work has also been shown nationally at Quench ArtSpace, Waitsfield, Vermont; Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; ARTS Lab, Albuquerque, New Mexico; CounterPulse, San Francisco, California; Climate Theatre, San Francisco, California; BASIC, San Diego, California; Yerba Beuna Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California; Dance Mission Theatre, San Francisco, California.
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