Jessica Peña Heberle (b. 1981) is a multidisciplinary artist from Erie, PA. She lives and works in her home studio in Wilkinsburg, PA. She spent her twenties back packing across Europe, traveling and moving around the US before calling Pittsburgh home. Her art process includes painting, drawing, comics, zines, art books, and found objects.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings depict figures in dialogue with the natural world—bodies of water, forests, and rock formations. These environments serve as emotional landscapes where figures drift between intimacy and detachment, engaged with their incorporeal selves, personal narratives, and the charged spaces they inhabit.
Themes of anxiety, loneliness, physical trauma, and the influence of the unconscious mind thread through my work. These emotional states are not illustrated directly but emerge through gesture, posture, and atmosphere.
In the studio, I embrace a process of uncertainty. Each piece begins without a fixed plan, evolving intuitively through layered experimentation. I work with various mediums, including watercolor, gouache, inks, colored pencil and graphite. Layering multiple mediums creates texture and movement within each piece and is a key component to my studio process. It is a vulnerable, creative practice where curiosity and obsessive mark-making guide the form and feeling of each painting.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025
Botanical Exhibition, Lawrencville Markethouse, Pittsburgh, PA.
2024
Botanical Exhibition, at Mt. Lebanon Public Library, lower floor gallery (August 2024)
2023
Artist Association of Pittsburgh-New Member Exhibition, Brew House Association, Pittsburgh, PA
Survivors, A Conversation About Consent, Marketview Arts - York College, PA, Curated by Erica Gaimari
2019
Wild Things Group Exhibition, Casey Droege Cultural Productions Project Space, Curated by Carolyn Pierotti, Pittsburgh, PA
2017
Storytellers Group Exhibition, Percolate: Art Space Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Wall Paintings: Storytellers, Live Mural Exhibition, SPACE Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Wonder Woman: Visions, Group Exhibition, The Toonseum, Pittsburgh, PA
2016
Wading In Internal Landscapes, Solo Exhibition, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Backstage Gallery At Theater Square, Pittsburgh, PA
Raw Draw Live Painting and Gallery Show, Neu Kirche Contemporary Art Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Dream City Group Show, 1018 Penn Ave Gallery, Wilkinsburg, PA
2014
Wonder Women on Page and Off, The Toonseum, Group Exhibition, Pittsburgh, PA
Uncovered Space Project, AIP Gallery, Group Exhibition, Pittsburgh,PA
2012
What is Your Myth, group show, The Zenith Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Clients I’ve worked:
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, The Andy Warhol Museum, Three Rivers Volkswagen, Coyne Advertising, Ixtlan Artists Group, Amber Waves Farm, The Toonseum, Illustration Ale for The East End Brewery, and more.
Contact: For commissions or inquiries please contact my email: Speaking4lines@gmail.com
Or you can use the contact form below!