Zhenesse Staniec Heinemann has created art in New York City since 2005 in varied spaces such as John Connelly Presents, English Kills Gallery, Grace Exhibition Space, Collective:Unconscious, Interart Annex, the Scope Art Fair NY, chashama spaces, and the Red Room.

“I am interested in a predominantly metropolitan habituation to myriad glass-fronted worlds accessible, but other. Peering into spaces that we do not occupy we revel in the encased display, which is maintained by a boundary and safety of a clear space of outside and in. I create the confined worlds of Living Dioramas using live still image and minimal gesture to explore subjects and characters inhabiting it, as well as exploring the affects of confinement within an enclosed environment and the act of the gaze on the inhabitant as it evolves over a sustained performance.  Often my works interrogate the female figure, cultural means of identity formation, the stability of relations between bodies and objects, and engagement between motivated agents of change.”

Zhenesse holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from the University of Southern California and an M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University and has been the recipient of a Puffin Grant in 2007 and 2009, a Scope Grant, and multiple chashama space grants.