JAI Featured Member/July 2026

Pennie Fien

JAI Featured Member

Pennie Fien

July 2026

JAI Featured Member

Pennie Fien

July 2026

Pennie Fien is a Los Angeles mixed media collage artist and painter who works with familial and other vernacular images in concert with archival ephemera and diverse materials. Her varied artistic career includes adventures in education, entertainment, arts management and advertising.

Pennie Fien, self portrait

I am a collage artist and painter creating visual biographies and narratives about identity, memory and the individual’s personal and societal presentation. Having worked as a costume designer for many years, I often incorporate miscellaneous vintage treasures and ephemera I’d collected along the way. I have been exhibiting my artwork both in person and online since retiring from the teaching profession several years ago.

Selected exhibition spaces have included Ebell of LA, Orange County Center For Contemporary Art, La Luz de Jesus, Brand Library Art Center, Torrance Art Museum Tryst Alternative Art Fair, VeruUltimum Gallery, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Betsey Lueke Creative Arts, Long Beach Creative Group, Palos Verdes Art Center, Site Gallery Brooklyn and the Annemarie Art and Sculpture Garden in association with the Smithsonian. In addition to my membership in JAI, I’m a member of Southern CA Women’s Caucus for the Arts and Collage Artists of America where I was Exhibits Chair and a board member. I received my BFA in Fine Art from Tyler College of Art in Philadelphia and an MFA from NYU in Costume Design.

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Most of the art pictured are from a series inspired by my late maternal aunt’s handwritten journal of her life. She’d been born in a Polish shtetl and bore witness to the unspeakable traumas of the old world, the fear and anticipation of the voyage to the new one and then the joy of life as an American.

Between Two Worlds
Vintage photos and postcard, fabric, watercolor
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My immigrant grandmother and aunt, with my 1st gen mother sitting looking so happy together one wouldn’t realize the misogyny and bigotry they endured. Their household was a combination of Yiddish and English so the background is a newspaper that promoted the American way of life in both languages. An ad for a matrimony service is shown, ironic as my grandfather had basically abandoned them, leading my grandmother to unsuccessfully take him to court resulting only in her being scolded as ungrateful by the unsympathetic judge.

Rose Aspires
Vintage photo transparency, vintage wallpapers, floral netting, staples, shopping bag, button
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My mother as the first born American was their great hope. As such, she is surrounded by both academic related and decorative elements as she was able to get an education and eventually achieve what they believed was the American Dream.

As Luck Would Have It
Vintage photos, postcard, doily, cardboard, charcoal, metal
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Initial inspiration was a letter I found from a Jewish immigrant to America sent to a relative left behind in eastern Europe. Given my family in the US was tiny, I wondered about the relatives mentioned in the Polish sections of my aunt’s writings that I had never heard of before. I can only assume they must have met an unfortunate end by Cossacks or Nazis. This led me to ponder about the role of luck and destiny that my father had fortunately gotten the opportunity to immigrate where others had not.

Maternal Values
Vintage plastic toy china cabinet, papers, glass, metal, shells, broken jewelry and china, plastic, faux fur and flowers, beads
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Family Values
Antique Japanese hand-painted serving plate, vintage toys, vinyl placemat, fake bird, acrylic paint, rubber, plastic, metal, beads, glass, paper, broken jewelry
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These assemblages act as my family’s Cabinets of Curiosity, using vintage plastic doll furniture abundantly stuffed with china and other misc. symbols of middle-class aspirations towards respectability.

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About JAI

Jewish Artists Initiative (JAI) is a Southern California organization committed to supporting Jewish artists and arts professionals. JAI aspires to be an agent of transformative change by organizing provocative exhibitions and thoughtful programs promoting diverse dialogue about Jewish identity and experiences. Founded in 2004, JAI remains committed to fostering Jewish culture in our community and beyond.

MISSION AND HISTORY

JAI was conceived by the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles in 2004. It was originally in partnership with the University of Southern California Casden Institute and the USC Roski School of Art and Design. For many years we have been under the fiscal sponsorship of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Members include primarily artists, as well as curators and art historians based in Southern California. The artists go through a jurying process to be admitted as members.

We have collaborated with a great range of Southern California institutions including American Jewish University, Hebrew Union College, UCLA Hillel and USC Hillel as well as a variety of art galleries and public spaces. We have also worked and exhibited in institutions in other parts of the United States and Israel such as the Jewish Art Salon, Hebrew Union College, New York, the New York UJA and the Jerusalem Biennale.

JAI BOARD MEMBERS

Melinda Smith Altschuler, Bill Aron, Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik, Anne Hromadka Greenwald, Gilah Yelin Hirsch,
Randi Matushevitz, Sagi Refael, Doni Silver Simons, Hillel Smith, Ruth Weisberg, Cathy Weiss

How to Become a JAI Member: JAI welcomes applications for membership from artists and arts professionals. For how to apply and to view the selection criteria click on Join JAI in the navigation links at the top or bottom of any page. Questions: contact JAI at admin@jaisocal.org