APRIL 1 • 2021 | 37
S
he brightens the world and lights up
room after room with her abstract,
geometric paintings. Artist Jennifer
Kroll of Birmingham is about as bold as you
can get when it comes to color — she’ll put
purple next to bright orange or align yellow,
hot pink and blue without batting an eye.
And somehow, every color combination
works, from pops of neon green to navy to
aqua blue.
“I’m fascinated by colors and shapes, and
I love experimenting with different combi-
nations of the two,
” she says. “My paintings
are often the result of these explorations.
Sometimes new ideas happen by accident as
I mix colors and move lines.
”
Kroll started her business, Jennifer Kroll
Fine Art, in 2018. She was churning out
eye-catching acrylic paintings on canvas
in her home studio as a hobby when her
husband, Todd, urged her to post a picture
on social media. She did, and orders and
inquiries started pouring in. Her paintings
are now in homes and commercial build-
ings across the world from Australia to
California, Florida and Washington, D.C.
The Jewish student organization, Hillel,
recently commissioned six large paintings
that will hang in a new, modern building
at George Washington University in D.C.,
where her oldest daughter, Lilley, attends
college. Her younger daughter, Marlee, 17,
is graduating from Frankel Jewish Academy
this year.
“I can’t believe I’m able to do something
I love and make a business doing it,
” Kroll
says. “I’ve had a lot of commissions during
COVID-19. No two paintings [or sets of
paintings] are the same.
”
Kroll and her family attend Temple Shir
Shalom in West Bloomfield. She is a gradu-
ate of Groves High School in Beverly Hills
and holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts
from Eastern Michigan University. In col-
lege, she studied fiber arts and tried several
other mediums. The one thing she never
worked with was acrylic paint. Today, that’s
her go-to product for laying color on thick.
“I like solid colors, and I don’t like to see
any brush strokes,
” she says. “Depending
on the design and size of the canvas, it can
Clockwise: Jennifer Kroll with a piece from her “Barcode” collection. Four canvases create a “Fair & Square” design. Six of Kroll’s paintings
brighten a wall.
continued on page 38
ARTS&LIFE
ART
COURTESY OF JENNIFER KROLL
Artist Jennifer Kroll makes a statement
with her bold, colorful creations.
Artist Jennifer Kroll makes a statement
Paintings
that
Pop
ROBIN SCHWARTZ
CONTRIBUTING WRITER