Jenna Short is an artist based in Victoria, BC. She is an Indigenous artist from the Saik,uz First Nation located in Vanderhoof, BC. She grew up in Prince George, BC, for the beginning part of her childhood before relocating to Victoria. She has always felt connected to the land and grew up playing in the nearby forests. The Forests became a grounding place and began to inform her art practice. Through feeling connected to the land but not knowing where she belongs she was left with a fractured identity. She often works with figurative and landscape subjects through oil painting, watercolour, and wood carvings. Jenna's solo exhibitions include: Swaying in the Still at the University of Victoria (2026); Untitled at the Habit cafe (2025). Other group shows: From the Livingroom (2025); Spillways (2025); ArtistTree (2025).
What does it look like finding solace of identity in place of non belonging? I explore themes of feeling disconnected from place and the effects of the industrialized society on our natural identity. I am an indigenous artist of the Saik,uz First Nation. My art practice heavily includes plywood, with the materiality acting as colonized and commercialized pieces of land that are being brought back to the natural body. It is in the use of self portraiture that it is not only bringing back the material to the land but my own identity and body. The body is both emerging from the plywood and being overtaken by it. The land is both giving creation to my body and having my body dissolve back into it. I think of my work like the tide, always in a state of change, never running anywhere, just gently holding my hand guiding me through my inner thoughts. In those thoughts, I explore the Indigenous identity that is not talked about often, but also anyone that feels a loss of their own culture in contemporary society.
