Jennifer Elster

Jennifer Elster’s latest exhibition, Quite a Bite, takes place in the 19th-century structure housing The Development Gallery in Tribeca, where everything is part of the show. Elster infuses her piercing perspectives into her abstract and often text-heavy paintings and sculptures, her deep sentimentality into her historical assemblages from her life (including artifacts from her work on David Bowie’s 1. Outside album), and her fears and warnings into her photographic series. Apocalyptic predictions, infused with the artist’s obstinate dark optimism, crackle throughout the historic grandeur of the 4,000 square foot space. Sixteen-foot cast-iron Corinthian columns run down the center of the gallery, lined with hanging construction lights that emphasize the art. Come by and you may get a glimpse into the labyrinth of Ravaged to be One, a theatrical musical experiment. Quite a Bite beckons and warns with shrilling foresight and haunting beauty; rich with meaning, depth, and a sly dark humor, the exhibition delivers a new experience.

The Development Gallery is lauded for its multi-media exhibitions, dynamic performance artwork, talented musicianship, and special guests, which have run the gamut from the underground to public icons in all fields.

Elster is a native New Yorker, critical thinker, artist, writer, director, filmmaker, photographer, musician, and performer who offers a deep and direct awareness of the human condition and our current world crises. Elster grew up in the art scene in NYC, performing in her early youth. With street edge and sophistication, Elster approaches her art with an untrained, raw, and aggressive style all her own, often using sharp diction, visual art, and performances to convey our times and our struggles.

Fueled by an upbringing stricken with poverty, danger, and complexities, she applies her instinctual problem-solving skills and innovative thinking to shed new perspective on pressing issues, evident in her notable solo-exhibitions, including The Retrospective of an Extroverted Recluse, The Wake the F*ck Up Show, Take Heed, and Quite a Bite. Each exhibition has interwoven various forms of media, such as photography, video, performance art, and painting, exploring the human experience and issues people don't want to face.

Beginning in childhood, her first obsessions were with writing and the workings of the mind, which led her to earn an honors degree in writing and psychology at NYU while styling cultural icons like David Bowie, Trent Reznor, and Chloe Sevigny. Elster then transitioned into filmmaking, where her written and directorial short and feature film work debuted at Village East, played on Sundance Channel and Netflix, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and garnered recognition and awards. Her online audio visual excursion, ItW Pathway, featuring Will Shortz, Terrence Howard,Temple Grandin and the late Glenn O’Brien, was considered an innovation to online experiences. Her next filmmaking project, ...In the Woods (and Elsewhere), features such compelling subjects as Aimee Mullins, Jorgen Leth, and Rufus Wainwright, with vocalizations performed by Yoko Ono. The production has spanned over two decades and The Development Gallery will soon reveal some of this never-before-seen work from the project. Elster’s work has been featured in publications such as The Art Newspaper, Rolling Stone, and New York Magazine, as well as at venues such as The Development, New Museum, and Grand Central Station. Elster is the founder of The Development, a gallery, film, and art studio in New York City.