Jennifer Bilek is a contemporary American portrait artist. Born and raised in New York City, Jennifer has honed her skills as a painter for over 35 years. Her talent for portraiture emerged early. At 5 years old, she would go through her coloring books and color all of the faces first, finding in that process an avenue to focus that created a balance and radiating joy within.
Jennifer studied formally with Vladimir Bachinsky, after receiving a two year scholarship (1981-1983) to study fine oil portraiture at the Woodstock School of Art. She also studied with acclaimed portrait painter Daniel Greene in 1989. From 1984-91 she painted 17 portraits of nationally renowned performance artist, Linda Montano, in a collaborative project exploring the seven chakras of the human spine. Using colors relating to each chakra, Jennifer painted serial portraits of Linda each year of Linda’s seven year performance.
To say that her portraits are a likeness of her subjects is understatement. Jennifer’s portraits are an explosion of perception rendered in physical form and color, intensely honest, and fiercely passionate. Most of her portraits are a part of private collections across the United States and Europe.