Jovi Schnell is a Los Angeles-based artist known for her vivid semi-abstract paintings and large-scale murals and mosaics in public spaces. Her work explores themes of bio-enchantment, drawing inspiration from botanical systems, mythic symbolism, and the visual language of pattern, color, and rhythm. Raised in a feminist utopian community, Schnell developed a connection to nature shaped by experimental counterculture, cosmic wonder, and ecological reverence. These sensibilities continue to inform her use of eco-poetic metaphor and tactile material play.
Inspired by Sister Corita Kent’s idea of PLORK (Play + Work), she created Anything Grows, a creative game framework that brings play, chance, divination, and collaboration into her painting process, workshops, and site-responsive public art projects. She calls this activity collaborative Space Gardening.
Jovi has received numerous grants and fellowships, including the Pollack-Krasner award for painting and residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, MacDowell Colony, and De Ateliers studio program in Amsterdam, NL. Her work has been exhibited in many galleries and institutions, including Stedelijk Bureau Museum (Amsterdam), Brooklyn Museum, and Berkeley Art Museum, and has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Flash Art, and Art in America. She holds a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from UC Berkeley,2017.
Her professional experience includes over 15 years of art instruction at institutions such as the California College of Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, CSULB, and the USC Roski School of Art. She has led experimental painting workshops at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and taught intensive summer programs in NYC and Switzerland. She currently teaches within the Los Angeles Community College District.