Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX

Interviews from Yale University Radio   WYBCX


Jessamyn Lovell

November 20, 2020

Self-Portrait in Blonde Wig, 2007

Jessamyn Lovell (b. 1977, Syracuse, NY) is a conceptual artist working with photography, video, performance, and surveillance contemplating class and personal identity. Lovell holds a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MFA from California College of the Arts.

She is based in Albuquerque, NM where she is currently a Senior Lecturer and Undergraduate Director of the Art Department at the University of New Mexico. Lovell is a founding member and activist leader in the United Academics of the University of New Mexico, the institution's new faculty union and a licensed and practicing private investigator.

Lovell has received international recognition for her artwork including Dear Erin Hart, for which she found, followed and photographed her identity thief. She received her private investigator’s license in 2017 for D.I.Y. P.I. (Do It Yourself Private Investigation), a long-term conceptual art piece. 

Self Portrait Mirror, 2017 Self-portrait taken on surveillance, from Do It Yourself Private Investigation (2016-current), 50"x70” archival inkjet print

Self-portrait taken on surveillance, from No Trespassing, (2007-2009), 40x70” archival inkjet print