Jessica Sperandio
MFA ’14 Fine Arts Low-Residency
As I started to document my family’s escape from the Armenian genocide in this lasercut artwork, I began to leave pieces out to represent the missing information in our story that has harmed how the genocide is understood. This idea of “missing pieces” took on a new meaning, as I began to connect my work to today’s social justice issues and how missing information threatens how we can become a more just and equitable world. Understanding the whole history of our country and world is necessary for social justice, and by not striving to teach and share the whole story threatens our ability to build empathy and understanding of difference. The art I create brings some of this to the forefront.
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Jess Sperandio is an artist and identifies as Armenian-American, Italian-American, queer and female. She has been documenting her Armenian family history that was thought to have “never been talked about” by researching at the National Archives and pulling bits of information from her grandmother, Mary Boyajian. Since her grandmother passed in 2019, Jess has shifted her focus onto current social justice issues.
