Jen Shepard was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Raised by a scuba diver, an aerospace engineer, and an evangelical chiropractor, Jen developed a fascination with the mysteries of life, science, and the afterlife from an early age.

Her work draws upon imagery derived from these phenomena and her origins and personal life, seeking to recast experiences of grief, loss and connection through play and joyful uncertainty.

Shepard holds an MFA in painting and printmaking from the University of Texas at Tyler and achieved her MS in graphic design at Pratt Institute. She has taught at Pratt Institute, Hofstra University, and CUNY and has been awarded residencies at DNA Residency (2020-22), The Wassaic Project (2016, 2018), The Vermont Studio Center (2019), and The School of Visual Arts (2009). Recent exhibitions include; Big Universe, a solo exhibition at One River School, Englewood, NJ; Moon Beams and Fever Dreams at Lorimoto Gallery, Ridgewood, Queens (2023); Do or Don’t Do it Yourself: A Paint by Number Show; (forthcoming) at Salve Regina University Gallery, Newport, RI (2023); Please Scream Inside Your Heart, (solo) at Gold/Scopophilia, Montclair, NJ (2021); and The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, (2-person) at Automat Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2017). Jen has also participated in art fairs such as Art on Paper (2020), Untitled Miami (2018), and The Satellite Art Fair, Brooklyn (2019). Jen’s work can be found in the Morgan Lehman Gallery flat files, the Fidelity Mutual Corporate Collection, and the Freight and Volume DNA Gallery collection. Jen is also an alumnus contributor (writer) for the Coastal Post, a blog about emerging artists.