FELINE PERIOD: ANCIENT EGYPT MEETS THE MEDIEVAL ERA

Feline Period: Ancient Egypt Meets the Medieval Era
A Jennifer Quinones Solo Exhibition
Opening April 10th, 6-8p
April 10 — May 10, 2025
Summertime Gallery

In Ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped as divine symbols, revered for their ability to embody tenderness, grace, fierceness, and danger all at once. We’re a long way from Ancient Egypt, but artist Jennifer Quinones is keeping the cat’s holy spirit alive with her Summertime exhibition, Feline Period, which honors the noble creatures and their eternally mysterious air. 

For her first ever solo show, Jenn is dividing Summertime in half, paying homage to her two favorite eras in art history: Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe. Cats are the connective tissue between the golden temple on one side and the pewter fortress on the other. Pharaohs and knights, princesses and priests, wizards and goddesses, all are transformed into furry friends with glistening noses and tickly whiskers. 

Jenn, who is a member of YAI Arts in Manhattan, is a lifelong artist, New Yorker, cat lover, and witch. She’s spent countless afternoons wandering through the hallowed halls of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, sketchbook in hand, ogling ornate tapestries and spellbinding hieroglyphics. The Egyptian and Medieval exhibits always stood out to her, both eras overflowing with characters who whisper directly to Jenn’s imagination, informing her artistic practice and spiritual worldview.

In one of Jenn’s drawings, a golden tabby in a pharaoh headdress snoozes on a limestone tomb as the Egyptian deities Bastet, Isis, and Ra watch over her. (A cohort of dormant mice, dreaming of cheese, close by, receive the blessings by proxy.) In another, anchored a few millennia later, a lord and lady cat pose in a lush springtime garden surrounded by grapes, apples, and blossoms. The piece reads “Pass me the purrrmegranate meow” in medieval script. Jenn fully transforms the gallery space, adorning the metallic gold and silver walls in hand-painted hieroglyphics and medieval symbols. Three dimensional sculptures of Cleopatra and King Tut greet visitors as they enter the sacred space. 

Jenn’s work combines an appetite for mischief with a serious – even spiritual – passion for her subjects. She’s as playful as a kitten pawing a ball of yarn, as reverent as a cat gazing out the window. She would never laugh in the face of her gods, but she encourages you to laugh with them. 

Feline Period is the culminating presentation of Jenn’s four month residency at Summertime. During this fertile period of creative development, Jenn participated in a Touch Tour at The Met’s Ancient Egyptian wing and explored the medium of stained glass for the first time in workshops at Soft Shapes. Throughout the experience, she felt the guidance and protection of her spiritual protective team, including Bastet, Hathor, Sekhmet, Joan of Arc, and many singing monks. She hopes you feel their presence throughout this exhibition as well. Feline Period offers a glimpse into the museum based in Jenn’s mind’s eye. It’s an outpouring of gratitude and respect to the roguish mice and cats she’s cared for, passed by, and prayed to, offered in colored pencil, glitter, and gold. 

Jenn’s exhibition will be brought to life through immersive programming conceptualized by the artist: a seance inviting Ancient Egyptian deities into the space as well as a workshop on creating Divine Pet Portraits at The Cloisters.