Jess von der Ahe
Jess von der Ahe (Santa Monica, California, 1966) is an American contemporary artist living in New York.
Von der Ahe received her BFA from Art Center College of Design in California in 1990 and since then has had 6 solo and 14 group exhibitions around the country. Collections of her work are owned by the Berkeley Art Museum and several private collectors, including John Waters. Her work consists mainly of menstrual blood and gold leaf coated in resin against a white background. Her works are generally abstract, though some are intended to call to mind subjects ranging from architecture and cell structure to her own take on Picasso's Guernica. As opposed to many of her contemporaries and predecessors, von der Ahe's use of menstrual blood is not political, and none of her work has ever referenced feminism. The choice of medium is more related to the intense personal nature of blood, as well as its limitedness, a la Robert Ryman's use of a limited palette.